* N.C. Change to Win head Willie Carey takes exception to a Dome item, says the AFL-CIO endorsed Sen. Kay Hagan before she backed card check.

* NoMoreGillNets.org has a billboard on Interstate 40 calling lack of wildlife enforcement on gill nets "another black eye for N.C. politics."

* Rep. Pricey Harrison introduces bill that would ban N.C. power companies from buying coal obtained via mountaintop mining in other states.

* Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts says the smoking ban has a good chance of passing, notes Rep. Marian McLawhorn is now in favor.

Three major labor leaders are based in North Carolina.

Though the state has historically not been considered friendly to labor, it has produced three leaders of major national unions in recent years:

John Wilson: A former Raleigh teacher, Wilson worked his way up the ranks of the N.C. Association of Educators, serving as president and executive director. Now executive director of the National Education Association, he has ties to Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

Jack Cipriani: After moving to North Carolina in 1975, Cipriani was a shop steward at Miller Brewing and now serves as Eastern Region vice president of the Teamsters. Gov. Mike Easley appointed him to the state's Employment Security Commission.

Chris Chafe: The Carrboro resident began organizing textile mills, eventually heading UNITE HERE and advising John Edwards' presidential campaign. Earlier this year, he was appointed executive director of Change to Win, a coalition of labor unions.

The three may be as much a symptom as a cause of increased labor activity in North Carolina, since their experience in traditionally hostile territory dovetails nicely with an increased emphasis on offense by national unions.

Freedom's Watch is calling North Carolina voters about Kay Hagan.

The Washington-based conservative lobbying group is making automated calls to North Carolina voters that say Hagan is soft on illegal immigration.

As with some other third-party efforts, the calls are not legally allowed to be coordinated with either Hagan's Senate campaign or U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's. They also do not mention the campaign, instead focusing on the issue and encouraging voters to call Hagan.

Greensboro blogger Ed Cone has reported receiving the calls, as has the Dole campaign's headquarters.

Update: Dome readers report receiving calls from the Change to Win Federation, a coalition of the Service Employees International Union and other unions, that promote Hagan.

Second Update: A BlueNC blogger and an N&O staffer report receiving a robocall from the Associated Builders & Contractors Free Enterprise Alliance criticizing Hagan.

Elizabeth Edwards is stepping up criticism of Sen. Hillary Clinton's support for universal health care.

Edwards, the wife of presidential candidate John, claims Hillary and her husband Bill abandoned their effort for a universal health care plan in the 1990s to concentrate on pushing for ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Rob Christensen reports.

"They lost the fight in 1993, pulled it out because they wanted to use their political capital to get NAFTA passed as opposed to universal health care in '94," she told The New York Daily News.

She said Clinton's health care plan is nearly identical to the one her husband unveiled early this year, with one exception: Clinton would negotiate with the insurance companies.

"We think that's the wrong direction to go," Edwards said of negotiations.

Elizabeth Edwards, who is fighting cancer, has been hammering away at Clinton's health care plan since the New York senator introduced it last week.

Tying health care to NAFTA also has the advantage of helping Edwards with the labor vote which he is avidly courting.

John Edwards is in Chicago this afternoon to address the Change to Win labor federation, which includes such major labor unions as the Teamsters.