Here are the smallest North Carolina earmark requests:

JOB HELP. U.S. Rep. Howard Coble requested $25,000 for the Sandhills Teen Challenge, a Carthage nonprofit, to help former drug users find work.

LIFE AFTER PRISON. Rep. Larry Kissell asked for $35,000 for Project Fresh Start to help former prison inmates "live a productive life."

PROSTATE CANCER. Rep. David Price requested $75,000 for the N.C. Institute of Minority Economic Development to run prostate cancer screenings.

SCHOOL SECURITY. Rep. Kissell asked for $94,242 for the Cabarrus County Sheriff's Department to provide school resource officers.

VARIOUS (TIE). Rep. Mike McIntyre asked for $100,000 each to restore slave quarters and perform beach renourishment. Rep. Price asked a special court on child support.

A legislative committee looked into the 287(g) program Tuesday.

Sheriff's offices in Alamance, Gaston and Mecklenburg counties are currently using the federal program to train deputies in immigration enforcement. Cabarrus County will soon start as well.

Under the program, deputies screen inmates who have been charged with felonies or drunk driving to see if they are legally in the United States. If they're not, deputies can refer them to the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Last year, the legislature appropriated $750,000 to the N.C. Sheriff's Association to assist with training.

State Sen. Ed Jones said he is concerned about the risk of ethnic profiling.

"What does an illegal alien look like or sound like is what my problem is," he said. "I don't know if there's a simple way out of this or not." (Burlington Times-News)

The owner of Lowe's Motor Speedway will get $80 million in incentives.

Billionaire Bruton Smith had first threatened to leave Concord two months ago for somewhere else in the Charlotte region after the City Council voted against his plans for a $60 million drag strip, The Charlotte Observer reports.

After the threat, Cabarrus County leaders put together the incentives package.

Details were still not public at a press conference announcing the deal, but Smith provided a "wish list" to the county earlier. Most of the money will go toward road construction. The state will provide about $20 million of the incentives.

The most interesting incentive? Speedway Boulevard, which connects to Interstate 85, will be renamed Bruton Smith Boulevard. 

He also said he has no further plans to move. "We're here forever," he said Monday.

Bob Orr is opposed to new incentives for Goodyear and Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The former Supreme Court justice and Republican gubernatorial candidate said in a statement today that the state should not reimburse Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. supplier PACC Lines for up to 30 percent of its shipping charges, as proposed.

"We simply cannot continue providing these kinds of deals to major corporate entities every time the state is threatened," he said in a statement.

He also said that the state, Cabarrus County and Concord should not spend $75 million to keep the Lowe's racetrack from moving. Part of the money would pay to widen U.S. 29 to six lanes.

"It is impossible to justify such an exorbitant expenditure," he said.