Are most North Carolinians spammer?  

Among the more interesting statistics mentioned at Friday's meeting of Gov. Mike Easley's e-mail retention panel was the fact that the state's firewall blocks about 95 percent of all messages addressed to state workers as spam, Michael Biesecker reports.

A skeptic could wonder if that's why some administration employees seem so difficult to get in touch with. But George Bakolia, the state's chief information officer, assured the group that the blocked messages were the usual solicitations to participate in get-rich-quick schemes in Africa or ads for erectile dysfunction pills.

Bakolia admitted that on occasion, however, the firewall had barred legitimate attempts at communication. Specifically, he said he used to get complaints from former Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom.

It seems the spam-blocking software took exception to her middle name.

Debbie Crane took issue today with Gov. Mike Easley's characterization of her actions as the chief spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Crane, who was fired from the post, said she didn't withhold any records of Carmen Hooker Odom's purported opposition as DHHS secretary to the 2001 reforms. Among other things, she said, the governor's office had asked her to find a copy of a speech that Hooker Odom never gave, reports Matthew Eisley.

"There were no documents because the woman didn't oppose mental-health reform," Crane said. "They don't exist. You can't create something if it doesn't exist."

Crane, who has been job-hunting, said she's considering showing up for work tomorrow at her old office.

"If they can't agree on who fired me," she said, "maybe I still have a job."

Who fired Debbie Crane?

In a meeting with newspaper editors Wednesday at the Executive Mansion, Gov. Mike Easley offered a new take on the recent firing of Crane, a former spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, reports Matthew Eisley.

Easley said Crane’s firing wasn’t his idea, which contradicts the accounts of others involved.

“It wasn’t me,” he insisted.

Crane, 48, was fired March 4 amid the political fallout of a News & Observer investigation into failures of the state’s mental-health system. Her dismissal revolved around the Easley administration’s attempts to persuade Carmen Hooker Odom, the former health and human services secretary, to talk with The News & Observer about what the administration says was her opposition to 2001 mental-health reforms.

Easley on Wednesday said DHHS fired Crane at the urging of the governor’s chief of staff because she had inappropriately talked Hooker Odom out of being interviewed and she failed to produce agency documents.

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Gov. Mike Easley has said repeatedly that Carmen Hooker Odom, former secretary of Health and Human Services, "vigorously" opposed mental health reform legislation when it was adopted in October 2001.

But that's not what Hooker Odom, who works for a nonprofit in New York City, said in an e-mail to The News & Observer in late February, reports Pat Stith.

Hooker Odom sent The N&O an e-mail message about her legislative "concerns" on Feb. 21 after talking with Debbie Crane, then the top public information office for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The newspaper didn't include the e-mail in its initial stories about mental health reform because it didn't show that Hooker Odom had opposed the reform bill.

Hooker Odom said in the e-mail that she had four concerns about the mental health reform legislation when it was being considered. But she said legislators amended the bill to eliminate two of those concerns, and she ignored a third directive.

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Much has been made of the hand-delivered letter Mike Easley "chunked" from his former Department of Health and Human Services secretary Carmen Hooker Odom.

But a thus far unanswered question has been who exactly it was that went to the executive mansion last week to put the letter into Easley's hand, Michael Biesecker reports.

In the interview where he first disclosed the letter's existence Sunday, Easley said he couldn't recall who the delivery person was.

"This was hand-delivered by someone she knew down here, and I don't know who," he said.

On several occasions this week, spokespeople for the governor either said they couldn't answer or didn't respond when asked for clarification about precisely who brought Easley the letter and on what date it was delivered.

One of those mysteries has now been solved.

Former Sen. Fountain Odom, Hooker Odom's husband, confirmed Tuesday he was the delivery man. But he, too, said he couldn't remember exactly what date he saw Easley.

"I've been in Raleigh two or three times lately," he said.

Asked if he knew what his wife wrote in the note, Odom said: "I don't read my wife's mail. Do you?"

Gov. Mike Easley said today that he did not violate public records law when he threw away a letter to him from Carmen Hooker Odom, former head of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

"Carmen sent me a handwritten personal note," he said. "It didn't have anything to do with public policy. It's not a public record, not something that I'm required to log and maintain. I read it and disposed of it."

Easley made his comments at a news conference devoted largely to the drought. In a 180-degree turn from the contentious news conference had held a week ago on mental health, Easley took follow up questions, responded to all questions and didn't try to run away, reports Lynn Bonner.

His administration has been under scrutiny for how it has responded to the failures of the state mental health system. Hooker Odom was in charge when problems related to a 2001 mental health reform plan mounted. She resigned her state job last year and in recent months has declined to be interviewed.

Easley said in an interview Sunday that Hooker Odom told him in her note why she didn't want to talk. But Easley said Tuesday her note did not "discuss anything of public consequence."

"It was never intended to be public," Easley said.

John Bussian, a lawyer for the N.C. Press Association, said Hooker Odom's note was indisputably a public record.

"The legal status does not turn on whether somebody intended it to be public," he said. "If it did, then anybody could use that as a license to steal from the public what it is entitled to know."

Gov. Mike Easley pledged Sunday to fix the state's mental health system by next year.

In a spontaneous interview with the N&O, Easley repeated that he "vigorously opposed" a 2001 reform law, although no written record shows that. He said he signed the bill because it had unanimous support in the legislature.

He says Carmen Hooker Odom, former secretary of Health and Human Services, told him that she thought the bill was too sweeping. 

"Is it possible she was over there supporting it the whole time while telling me she opposed it? Sure. But why would she do that?" he said. "I'd just gotten into office. I didn't know enough about the particular issue than to accept what she was telling me." 

He said Hooker Odom sent him a letter explaining why she doesn't want to talk to the media, but he threw it away. (N&O) 

The Easley administration today fired Debbie Crane, the state official who handled News & Observer reporters' requests for information as they worked on a series about mental health.

Crane, 48, who was public affairs director at the state Department of Health and Human Services, said department secretary Dempsey Benton told her yesterday that Gov. Mike Easley "wanted me out. He had lost confidence in me."

She was officially fired this morning by another department official, she said, after Benton went to Easley's press conference about mental health issues.

Crane said her dismissal revolved around the Easley administration's attempts to get former DHHS secretary Carmen Hooker Odom to talk to The N&O about her supposed opposition to the 2001 mental health reforms. There is no evidence that Hooker Odom opposed the bill, although Easley told reporters late last year — and again today — that she had vigorously opposed the legislation.

Crane said Hooker Odom contacted her in early January about talking to The N&O. Crane said she e-mailed her that, "'These stories are going to be terrible. It's up to you. I wouldn't call them back.'"

"She's in a different role now," Crane said. "She's out of it."

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Former Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom said the state's mental health reform needs a reform of its own.

In a half-hour documentary on WRAL Wednesday night, she said that local mental health offices need to be more accountable to the state.

In particular, Hooker Odom noted that the state did not have any authority over the Albemarle Mental Health Center, which paid its head $319,000 a year.

Her remarks echoed her concerns about so-called "local management entities" from an Aug. 17 letter she sent to state legislators.

The interview was conducted shortly before she left office.

The documentary, "State of Minds," can be seen in full here. Extra footage of reporter Cullen Browder's interview with Hooker Odom is available here and here.

Dempsey Benton was sworn in Wednesday as secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, taking charge of one of the largest departments in state government.

The department and its staff of more than 19,000 oversee the welfare of millions of North Carolinians through Medicaid programs, public health initiatives, disabilities services and mental health care, Lynn Bonner reports.

Benton was a long-time Raleigh manager who later served as chief deputy secretary of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Benton succeeds Carmen Hooker Odom, who left to become president of the Milbank Memorial Fund.