Julie Brill, an assistant attorney general from Vermont, is replacing newly-elected state Sen. Josh Stein as the state's top consumer watchdog.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has hired Brill to be the head of his Consumer Protection Division. She has been working in the Vermont Attorney General's Consumer Protection and Antitrust divisions since October 1991, Dan Kane reports.

Jennifer Canada, a spokeswoman for Cooper, said that Brill was instrumental in launching the Vermont office's litigation, legislative and regulatory strategies in a wide variety of consumer and business matters. They include privacy, credit reporting, financial services, tobacco, food, drugs and other health-related industries.

"Consumers are facing new threats from fraud and bad deals in the struggling economy, and we are pleased to bring one of the best consumer protection attorneys in the country to North Carolina," Cooper said in a statement.

Brill graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and received her law degree from New York University. She starts at the end of the month. Her salary has not yet been set.

Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, was the consumer protection chief under Cooper since February 2001.

Gov. Mike Easley and state Sen. Bob Atwater are doing battle with Scrooge.

Easley announced this afternoon that he has signed into law a bill that requires gift card vendors to disclose any maintenance fees. Consumer advocates have said consumers are often initially unaware of the fees.

Easley, in a statement, said the new law "will prevent consumers from becoming unwitting cheapskates when they give a gift."

And Atwater, the Chatham County Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a statement that the bill will assure consumers "that their generosity is not subverted by a hidden Scrooge."

The legislature acted on a number of issues:

GIFT CARDS: On Monday, the Senate passed a bill that requires gift card vendors to disclose the maintenance fees. Consumer advocates say the silent fees are a major complaint.

POWER PLANTS: The House overwhelmingly approved a bill to require a significant amount of energy come from renewable sources such as solar and wind, but it also made it easier to finance coal and nuclear plants. Environmentalists were conflicted.

END OF LIFE: The House passed a bill that would allow North Carolinians to write more detailed "do not resuscitate" forms and clarify existing laws. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh charged the bill would tilt towards euthanasia.

LANDFILLS: The House removed strict new environmental requirements for landfills passed in a Senate bill. A senator who worked on the legislation said that he would work to restore the new requirements in order to keep private landfills from importing garbage.