North Carolina has been named the state with the the "top business climate" for the fifth year in a row by Site Selection magazine, Gov. Bev Perdue announced this morning.

"We are are all mighty proud given the circumstances we were dealt in January," Perdue said in making the announcement at the Council of State meeting, Rob Christensen reports.

But Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry poured cold water on the announcement. She noted that a half million citizens were about to lose their unemployment benefits and that the state's employment levels had declined to 1999 levels.

Since this time last year, Berry noted, the state had lost more than 200,000 jobs.

Perdue replied that North Carolina was part of "a global recession."

Perdue is a Democrat and Berry is a Republican.

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Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry takes a lot of credit or saving the apprenticeship program housed in her department.

Berry was in Kannapolis on Monday to meet with Rowan-Cabarrus Community College leaders and to give a labor forecast, the Salisbury Post reports.

Berry, a Republican, told leaders the trades are the best thing for many young people and that she fought hard to retain control of the apprenticeship program, in which businesses take on and certify apprentices.

When Gov. Beverly Perdue wanted to give the apprenticeship program to the N.C. Community College System, Berry "threw my body over it" to keep the program in the labor department, she said.

Perdue, a Democrat, had proposed shifting all the functions of the program, which was created in the 1930s to the community colleges, since it fit better with the colleges' mission. The legislature kept the program in Berry's department, although it required it to become more self-sufficient. 

State Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry expressed concern this morning about some of the invoices connected to the state's legal battle with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Berry, a Republican, noted invoices for $5.50 for a beer, unused hotel rooms, hotel upgrades, valet parking and candy, reports Rob Christensen.

"There are expenses being paid that I don't think are appropriate to be paid with taxpayer money," Berry said after a meeting of the Council of State, a body of statewide elected officials which approves of various expenses and transactions.

Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat, defended the expenditures.

"Those invoices were scrubbed a long time ago," Cooper said. "The state did not pay anything it was not supposed to pay. The bottom line here is that we have succeeded in forcing TVA to significantly reduce pollution coming in to North Carolina. The people of North Carolina are big winners as a result of this lawsuit."

Cooper's spokesman later said the state never reimbursed the firm for the beer, nor did the firm ever submit the beer as an expense.

The Council of State Tuesday approved $103,771 in new expenses to two law firms, the Ayres Law Group and Hunsucker, Goodstein & Nelson. Berry voted against it.

The state had previously paid the firms $3.2 million in legal fees in the case.

BLUE CROSS, GREENBACKS: Costs may go up for state workers and retirees on the State Health Plan because of poor fiscal management. But critics howled this week after a News & Observer investigation revealed that Blue Cross Blue Shield is paid more than $10 per claim, or 18 times the 57 cents the state spends to process Medicaid claims. Some are calling for an audit.

SLEEPY TIME: How's this for a wake-up call? "You're fired." A state worker who fell asleep on the job five times is fighting to get her job back, arguing it was due to sleep apnea, a medical condition that kept her awake at nights. Could she get any help from the State Employees Association of North Carolina? Dream on, it said.

I DO? NO YOU DON'T: More than 1,000 people attended a rally against gay marriage outside the legislative building in Raleigh. Sponsored by a Christian group from Winston-Salem, the rally was aimed to persuade lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage on the ballot. Democratic leaders have already buried the bill, however.

IN OTHER NEWS: Talk-show host Jimmy Fallon sang about U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, but his lyrics could use a fact-check. ... Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry thinks the state should pull back on routine spending for state parks during the recession. ... Gov. Beverly Perdue is readying her first "State of the State" speech for next Monday. Hint: It's about state spending.

Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry Tuesday objected to some routine spending for park land, saying it was not appropriate during a deep recession.

"I am very much concerned about the debt we are incurring," Berry said. "I'd like to see us suspend all unnecessary spending until the budget stabilizes."

Berry, a Republican and a fiscal conservative, made her comments Tuesday morning at a meeting of the Council of State, a body of the state's top elected executives which meet monthly to approve mainly routine purchases, right-of-way proceedings, office leases and other such business, Rob Christensen reports.

The purchases mainly for parkland such as $262,926 for 32 acres at Elk Knob State Park in Ashe County and $1.8 million for 265 acres at Yellow Mountain State Park in Avery County.

Berry made her comments through a speaker-phone hook-up because she was snowed in at her home in Catawba County. The purchases were approved without debate, with only Berry voting against it.

This morning's meeting of the Council of State was a subdued affair because of the death of former Insurance Commission Jim Long.

Gov. Beverly Perdue asked for a moment's silence for Long, who last month ended 24 years of experience regulating the insurance business, Rob Christensen reports.

She joked that if Long were there, he would have said pass the donuts and coffee and said get the meeting moving.

Perdue asked the Council of State members to attend Long's funeral on Thursday as a group.

Long’s death overshadowed a little history. For the first time, a majority of the members of the Council of State were women: Perdue, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, State Treasurer Janet Cowell and State Auditor Beth Wood, and Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson.

A bill filed Wednesday would take away some of Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry's authority.

The legislation would move the state's responsibility for enforcing workplace safety from the N.C. Department of Labor, overseen by Berry, to the N.C. Department of Commerce, which is run by a member of the governor's Cabinet.

Sen. Doug Berger, a Youngsville Democrat, said he sponsored the bill out of frustration with what he called Berry's "laissez-faire," "see-no-evil" and partisan approach to the office.

Specifically, he said he was upset she did not take stronger action to regulate the poultry industry after a Charlotte Observer series last year revealed problems with worker conditions.

He argued that voters would hold Gov. Beverly Perdue more accountable for problems with workplace safety enforcement than Berry, even though she faced a statewide election last November, because voters and the media paid little attention to the race.

"There's no question that most people in the state feel they can ride an elevator safely," he said, referring to photos of Berry on state elevator licenses. "She's done a good job on that, and that's why she was re-elected."

Even if a more active labor commissioner were elected later, Berger said he would support leaving the authority under the governor permanently.

Update: Berger and Berry have some history together. She defeated him in the 2000 labor commissioner race by two-tenths of one percent.

The Council of State members can drop the "elect" now.

In order of the creation of their offices, the nine statewide elected officials took their oaths of office: Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, Attorney General Roy Cooper, Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, Treasurer Janet Cowell, Auditor Beth Wood, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton.

U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton is getting her tongue-twisted.

She started to call House Speaker Joe Hackney "senator" then corrected herself, but got his last name something closer to "Hackley."

Then she called the governor-elect "Everly" and corrected herself on that one too.

A little later, Clayton made amends for her earlier error in pronouncing the first gentleman's last name.

"I made an awful error. I didn't acknowledge the power behind the power — Bob Eaves," she said, pronouncing it correctly this time.

Then, she introduced Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry (pronounced "sha-ree") as "Cherry Berry" and Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson as Patricia "Timmason" Goodson, Treasurer Janet Cowell as Janet "Caldwell" and featured singer Caitlin Cary as "Cathlin."

Finally, horror of horrors, she pronounced Andy Griffith's name as "Andy Griffin."

A few moments from Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue inaugural ball tonight:

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler was the only member of the delegation on his flight from D.C. He has a 4-year-old daughter, Island, so a female governor has special significance.

"That means my daughter can do anything she sets her mind to."

*****

State Rep. Alice Graham Underhill was showing around her niece, 20-year-old Grace Ann Brooks, a junior studying communication at N.C. State University.

She attended an inaugural as an infant in 1989 when her grandfather, then-Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Graham, was sworn in.

*****

Labor Comissioner Cherie Berry's three daughters were in town from Charlotte; Toledo, Ohio; and D.C. She wore her grandmother's crystal necklace and earrings.

There are still 2 Republicans on the Council of State, with Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

"We can still get a second to a motion," she joked.

*****

Mecklenburg County Commissioners Jennifer Roberts and Harold Cogdell drove up for the festivities.

Perdue's Republican opponent last year was Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory.

"We thought it was important to open a new channel with the governor's office." Cogdell said.

— Mark Johnson