For state Rep. Nelson Dollar, the construction vehicles parked in front of statues and monuments on the Capitol's lawn had ruined enough field trips.

So Dollar got his fellow lawmakers to do something about it.

The Cary Republican sponsored a bill that would let state maintenance vehicles park on the streets around the Capitol for free as long as they stayed off the building's lawn. On Thursday, the bill got final approval from the Senate.

"I just wanted it so school children and other visitors to the Capitol could see the vistas," Capitol said.

In the past, trucks were ticketed for parking too long in metered and free spots. The bill is a compromise between the Department of Administration, which own the trucks, and the city of Raleigh, which is planning on installing more parking meters along the streets.

"It was just to make sure that, no matter what, these people would still be able to work and park," Dollar said.

Under the Dome will be closed on Sunday for repairs.

No, not us. (We're usually closed on Sundays anyway.)

The state Capitol will be closed to visitors on Sunday for some maintenance. State officials say a new transformer will be installed, and power must be shut off while the work is underway.

The Capitol is expected to be open for business again on Monday.

Gov. Beverly Perdue promised an open administration.

But even she has to contend with a fence now and then.

The capitol building now sports sections of six-foot chain-link fencing designed to keep pedestrians off the sidewalk, which is being torn up and replaced as part of a long-term repair project.

Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson said that the fences will likely be up for a few months, but she said it should not hurt citizen access to the capitol.

"It may change the approach they come in, but it won't block their access," she said.

She added that the impetus for the project was complaints that the aging and cracked sidewalks have caused some people to trip in fall. 

Workers are also taking care to make sure the disabled have a ramp at all times to get into the capitol.

Gov. Mike Easley says it wasn't his idea to slip out of the Capitol last week to dodge reporters' questions about his administration's oversight of the state's troubled mental health system.

"Security says we're going out this door and I go out that door," said Easley, responding to a question Sunday at a meeting of the state's editorial writers, reports Michael Biesecker.

When two N&O reporters and a videographer staked out the governor's waiting SUV after a media conference Tuesday, a member of the governor's security team went out and opened the doors of the vehicle, its engine running, as if Easley was about to get in.

Meanwhile, the governor exited by a door on the other side of the building and got in a different vehicle.

On Sunday, Easley compared the situation with the reporters to when the Capitol is jammed with inquisitive schoolchildren on tours.

"Sometimes if there's a lot of classes in there I have a hard time walking past the fourth grade classes and we're in a hurry to get somewhere," Easley said.

"Sometimes if there's reporters hanging around they don't want to deal with, that, you know, you just finished a press conference, you figure, well, we dealt with those issues. Sometimes, there's people they have concerns about, they change the way you go out."