* Gov. Beverly Perdue had a brief run in with a bear while taking her two dogs outside during a visit to the Western Residence in Asheville.

* News & Observer cutting 27 full-time reporters and editors as part of a companywide plan to pay down debt owed to Wall Street.

* Central Regional Hospital in Butner is again in danger of losing federal funding after a patient tried to commit suicide using a bedsheet.

* North Carolina ranks near the bottom on a per-capita basis of states receiving federal stimulus money for road and bridge projects.

Gov. Beverly Perdue went last night to see the former Army barracks in Butner where mentally ill children live and receive treatment.

Her visit came the day after a News & Observer published an article about maintenance and insect problems in the children's quarters at the old John Umstead Hospital, Lynn Bonner reports.

Adults have moved to a new hospital about a mile away, while children are still in the World War II-era buildings. A patient advocacy group wants the kids moved to the new hospital, too.

A short description of Perdue's visit appears on her blog, but she did not say what she thought of the place.

When reporters toured the old Umstead buildings yesterday morning, the units they visited had heat.

Hospital administrators said the buildings in the old hospital the state is refurbishing for the children were good spaces for them.

Politics + Media = extra $$.

The new state mental hospital needed more than a regular old director.

That's why the state Department of Health and Human Services had to hire J. Michael Hennike as a contractor to run Central Regional Hospital in Butner, it explained in its contract, Lynn Bonner reports.

DHHS hired him under a contract with the UNC-Chapel Hill medical school's psychiatry department for $185,012.

"CRH is in the middle of merging operations between John Umstead Hospital and Dorothea Dix Hospital and the process is highly political and involves the media," the contract's "problem statement" says. "A seasoned manager with vast experience is needed."

Hiring Hennike as a contractor allowed DHHS to pay him about $70,000 more than the going rate for hospital directors.

Although DHHS announced Hennike started Jan. 1, DHHS said he's actually been running the place since Nov. 1. That's when his contract started.

Mark Van Sciver, a DHHS spokesman said Mike Lancaster, the interim director who made way for Hennike, was the "titular head" for a while. Hennike is expected to run Central Regional for two years, according to the contract.

Hennike, who ran the Murdock Center in Butner for years, suspended his state pension payments Dec. 1, according to the state treasurer's office.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the salary. 

Will any of Andy Willis' past lobbying efforts come back to haunt him?

Not likely. As a chief lobbyist for N.C. State and the University of North Carolina system, the newly appointed legislative liaison for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue was not in charge of too many controversial things.

The only controversial issue he lobbied for was a national biodefense facility in Butner that some residents feared could spread deadly pathogens.

As a spokesman for UNC, Willis said that security concerns were valid, but the facility would be safe, noting that Triangle-area labs have handled hazardous material for decades.

"People are going to drop test tubes," he said in a Dec. 22, 2007, article in the N&O. He compared the facility to "a safe within a 6-inch cement box within a 6-inch cement box in a submarine down in the Atlantic Ocean."

That remark may grate among opponents of the proposed facility, though it's something of a moot point now that the federal government has recommended a Kansas site instead.

In other articles, Willis has been quoted being grateful for state higher education funding, explaining why the UNC system has so many vacant jobs and noting that UNC leaders did not ask for athletic scholarships in the state budget.

An offhand remark in a Jan. 21, 2007, N&O article did draw a complaint.

"I'm not sure business will change that much," Willis said of newly instituted ethics rules. "Even though the perception is that lobbyists wine and dine people, 99 percent of the business takes place at the legislature."

A Carrboro woman criticized the quote in a letter to the editor the next week.

Dorothea Dix is gone in name only.

A judge may have ruled the state can't move patients out of Raleigh's Dorothea Dix Hospital because of safety concerns with a new mental hospital in Butner, but that doesn't mean N.C. Department of Health and Human Services officials can't try to eliminate the name of the 19th century social reformer for which the historic facility was named.

Michael Lancaster, co-director of the state Division of Mental Health, issued a memo Monday ordering that Dorothea Dix no longer exists, at least on the telephone, Michael Biesecker reports.

All Dix employees are now to follow the following script when answering calls:

Good Morning or Good Afternoon
Central Regional Hospital Raleigh Campus
This is (your name)
How may I help you?

A state judge has stalled the plan to shut down Dorothea Dix hospital.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that bars the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services from moving the bulk of Dix's patients to the new Central Regional Hospital.

That had been sheduled to start on Oct. 1.

The judge acted in response to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of patients by the advocacy group Disability Rights North Carolina, which has been monitoring conditions at Central Regional. 

"We are pleased with the decision, obviously," said Vicki Smith, the executive director of Disability Rights. "What the danger is when courts get involved is that the lawyers start arguing small points and we forget why we're there, which is to document that patients are safe."

It is not clear how long Baddour's order will last. (N&O) 

A legal advocacy group has asked a judge to stop the pending closure of Dorothea Dix.

In a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday, lawyers for Disability Rights North Carolina detail 15 safety issues at Central Regional Hospital, the new Butner facility where the bulk of Dix's patients will soon be transferred.

The nonprofit group has a federal mandate to investigate conditions independently in state hospitals, and it has been monitoring Central Regional for months. Its suit asks that a Wake County Superior Court judge issue a temporary restraining order to stop the transfer of Dix patients.

"The new hospital has significant issues regarding the safety and care of patients," said Vicki Smith, the advocacy group's executive director. "The [state] continues to provide assurances they will fix the problems, but to date, serious problems still exist."

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said he could not comment on the lawsuit, citing a policy.  

In a separate development, investigators for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed up at Central Regional to look into multiple complaints. (N&O)

Two months after DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton asked the SBI to review the purchase of a portrait by former hospital director Patsy Christian, there is no word about when agents might wrap up their investigation.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that Benton has not yet received any response from investigators, Michael Biesecker reports.

Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, did not respond to inquiries last week about the status of the investigation.

Benton requested the SBI probe May 29, following a report in the N&O about the oil painting Christian commissioned of herself to hang at the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

The portrait, which cost a combined $571.98 once installed in a gilded frame, was painted on contract by a state employee who was subordinate to Christian and provided to the state at a steep discount of its proclaimed value.

The SBI was asked to examine the events surrounding the commission and purchase of the portrait to assure that no state laws were violated.

Benton said the state money spent on the portrait, which came from vending machine receipts meant to pay for field trips and other recreation for mental patients, would be recovered and that the painting would never hang in the new hospital.

Lawrence said the painting has been returned to the artist, who is a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital. A check equal to the portrait's cost was deposited into the hospital's account, though Lawrence said he did not know who the check was from.

Christian resigned as the director of Central Regional June 11. She is still on the state payroll in a new administrative position Benton created for her, earning $114,056 annually.

Update: Lawrence said Tuesday that a check reimbursing the state for the cost of the portrait was sent by J. Lee Harris, the artist who painted it. She is also a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital and a former subordinate of Christian's. 

Pat McCrory says the state should not certify its own hospital.

The Republican gubernatorial nominee said that he objects to the decision to strike a provision from the state budget that would have required a new Central Regional Hospital in Butner to be approved by outside inspectors before it opened.

The decision also means that Dorothea Dix hospital in Raleigh could be closed sooner.

"In another secret back room meeting, the political establishment in Raleigh has arrogantly dismissed the welfare of mental health patients and decreed through the budget that the state does not have to comply with the same regulations it places on everyone else," he said in a statement.

He noted that hospitals normally have to pass "rigorous reviews," but not mental hospitals run by the state.

"The Department of Health and Human Services, which is racked with scandal and over $400 million misspent in mental health, will now move forward with closing Dix Hospital and opening Central Regional without independent review," he said.

Earlier this morning, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Beverly Perdue said she also objects to the decision.

Beverly Perdue says the state should not certify its own hospital.

In a statement, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee said that she "strongly" disagrees with the decision to strike a budget provision that would have prevented the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner from opening until outside inspectors approved it.

She also said that N.C. Secretary of Health and Human Services Dempsey Benton should not allow patients into the Butner hospital until it meets those standards.

"Secretary Benton should not authorize transfer until Central Regional meets those standards – the long-term safety and care of both patients and staff must not be compromised," she said.

A faster opening at Butner would also mean that Dorothea Dix hospital in Raleigh would close sooner.