U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be in Cary this weekend for what his office is calling a "major policy speech" focusing on international standards for school achievement.

Duncan will be offering the keynote address Sunday night at the Governors Education Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, Lynn Bonner reports.

Duncan's speech will be the second in a series of four leading up to the opening of competition for $5 billion from the "Race to the Top"  fund — money Duncan will dole out to states to encourage school improvements.

The fund is part of the stimulus money Congress approved earlier this year.

Instant runoff voting is slowing down.

Only one North Carolina town — Hendersonville — will use the voting method this year as part of a pilot project.

After using instant-runoff voting, plurality elections and traditional runoffs, the Cary Town Council decided to stick with a traditional runoff.

Instant runoff voting is a newer method that avoids the expense of a second election by allowing voters to designate a second choice on their ballot. If no candidate wins a majority, second-choice votes are then counted, essentially creating an "instant" runoff.

Wednesday was the deadline for a town or city to volunteer with the State Board of Elections for the voting method in this fall's elections.

Voter activist Joyce McCloy, who opposes IRV, called it a "blow to lobbying groups who had set their hopes" on Cary.

Republicans will have a chance tonight to hear about how the GOP should mount its comeback from the four candidates running for state GOP chairman.

Chad Adams, Tom Fetzer, Marcus Kindley and Bill Randall will speak tonight to the Western Wake Republican Club annual spring fling dinner in Cary, Rob Christensen reports.

The dinner starts at 6 p.m. at the Business Networking Center at 649 Walnut Street in Cary.

The state party chairmanship race will be decided June 12-14 at the state Republican convention at the Raleigh Convention Center. The four are seeking to replace Linda Daves, who is not seeking another term.

The town of Apex saved $13,000 with online notices.

About a year ago, Town Clerk Georgia Evangelist heard that the city of Raleigh was publishing its meeting notices online.

She decided to try a similar program for the town of Apex, which is near Research Triangle Park in Wake County.

Apex and several other Wake towns got permission from a special bill in the legislature last year to publish online, instead of in the local newspaper. A bill filed this year would expand the program statewide.

Evangelist said the town still occasionally advertises in the Apex Herald and The News & Observer. It also sends letters to neighbors who may be affected.

"We still advertise in the paper when it's something we need to get our more widely, like a pre-budget hearing," she said.'

Update: Cary spokeswoman Susan Moran estimated the town spends $20,000 a year on online notices, although it still advertises in the local newspapers as well. 

A bill would allow town meetings to be publicized online.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, said he filed the bill to expand a local program in small towns in Wake County that allowed them to avoid expensive legal notices in the local newspaper.

Instead, the towns of Apex, Cary, Garner and Knightdale have posted notices of upcoming zoning hearings and town council meetings on their Web sites. Stam said the program saved the towns money while still getting the word out.

"Most people aren't affected by it," he said. "Most people don't care whether there's an ad in the paper or not. The purpose is to put it out there publicly so that someone who wants to know what's going on has a source to find it."

The bill would not affect all legal notices. Towns would still have to notify neighbors of affected properties by mail, and foreclosure notices and civil actions would still have to be publicized in local papers.  

In addition, Stam is considering adding provisions to help local officials determine whether they have sufficient Internet penetration.

Gov.-elect Bev Perdue's incoming administration held the first of its public meetings to get input on important issues by focusing on a topic close to Perdue's heart.

About 40 advocates and state regulators met Wednesday in Cary to discuss how North Carolina can do a better job providing assistance to elderly residents, the Associated Press reports.

The group is one of 14 meeting over the next week on topics ranging from transportation to mental health. The groups will make recommendations to the governor-elect by early December.

Perdue did not attend the meeting in Cary. She used to work as a geriatric consultant and services director at a New Bern hospital.

The number of people age 65 or older in North Carolina in 2030 will be more than double the total in 2000.

Barack Obama had more offices in Triangle suburbs and towns with a lot of black voters.

A side-by-side comparison of the two lists of campaign offices by the campaigns shows 20 places where Obama had an office and John McCain did not.

The list includes a few suburbs of Raleigh and Durham: Apex, Cary, Chapel Hill, Fuquay-Varina and Clayton.

It also has a handful of cities with significant black populations: Elizabeth City, Lumberton, Morehead City, New Bern, Sanford, Supply and Warsaw.

In addition, Obama had three offices apiece in Charlotte and Raleigh, while McCain had just one in Charlotte and two in Raleigh.

Correction: A second McCain office was not listed in the original version of the post.

After the jump, the list.

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Coming soon to the Galaxy Cinema: The national debates.

The Cary theater will host viewing parties for the presidential and vice presidential debates this year. The events are free and open to the public, but tickets are necessary.

Though anyone can attend, the crowd will likely be heavily Democratic since the theater was rented by a private individual.

The debates will be shown with digital screening and viewers will have free WiFi.

According to cinema spokeswoman Kim Yaman, about 10 tickets are left for the Sept. 26 debate, though around 200 are available for the Oct. 2, Oct. 7 and Oct. 15 debates. Doors open a half hour before the 9 p.m. start of the debtaes.

To register for the tickets, go to Obama's Web site.

Correction: An earlier version of the post misstated the sponsorship of the event. 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole and her husband Bob will campaign together Friday.

The two will appear at a rally hosted by the Wake County McCain-Palin Committee and Wake County Veterans for McCain at the Franklin-Sloan post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Cary at 5:30 p.m. 

It is an unusual joint appearance for the couple, who have been campaigning separately for her re-election in November. 

The event is open to the public. 

One of U.S. Rep. David Price's most visible staffers has joined the campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Price spokesman Paul Cox, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, has taken a leave of absence from his Capitol Hill job to become Obama's statewide spokesman, Barb Barrett reports. He's already at work in North Carolina, including being quoted twice so far in Dome.

Cox will see his other boss Tuesday during an Obama campaign office opening in Cary. Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, is scheduled to speak.