Camden and Currituck counties are also fighting a landing field.

After a successful fight by residents of Washington and Beaufort counties against a proposed landing field, the Navy began considering sites there and in Gaston County, along with three sites in Virginia.

Now, leaders in Camden and Currituck are mounting their own opposition. 

Camden County Manager Randell Woodruff said that the landing field would not only disturb the land in question but lead to restrictions elsewhere in the county.

"It really has the potential to be devastating to our tax base and our property values," he told Dome. "It's preventing us from attracting business and industry to the county, with that kind of facility taking up and putting restrictions on 30,000 acres."

He said the economic benefit of the landing field would go to Virginia, home of the Oceana naval air station, but the downsides will only affect North Carolina.

"We're not going to get anything but the noise," he said.

Related: Camden and Currituck officials commision soil study that shows problem with site.

North Carolina has only one female sheriff.

First elected in 2000, Currituck County Susan Johnson is the only woman of the state's 100 sheriffs, though she used to have more company.

As recently as 2006, there were three women, including Sheriff Barbara Pickens of Lincoln County and an appointee in Washington County.

Pickens was the state's first female sheriff when she was elected in 1994. She was re-elected to two more terms, retiring in 2006 after losing a bid for another term.

Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, said he did not know why there were not more women in the role.

"The decision about who to elect rests with the qualified voters of the individual counties," he said.

Though women were elected to a number of offices for the first time this year, several top positions in law enforcement remain nearly all male.

Gov. Mike Easley has vetoed nine bills.

As the first governor to use the veto in North Carolina history, he's taken on a hodgepodge of legislation in his two terms in office.

The vetoed bills would have:  

* Approved certain legislative appointments. 

* Changed mortgage lending laws.

* Changed teacher certification.

* Compensated billboard owners.

* Changed teacher certifications.

* Sold an airport site to Currituck County for a dollar.

* Granted access to state buildings to employees associations.

* Given incentives to Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

* Allowed wider boats and trailers on state roads. 

Vetoes of the first eight bills were all sustained. The boats bill was vetoed Sunday, so the legislature has not yet acted on it. 

The U.S. Navy said today it will study two sites in northeastern North Carolina and three in Virginia for a landing field where aircraft carriers pilots can practice takeoffs and landings.

The Navy said it was abandoning further consideration of its preferred site, which straddles Washington and Beaufort counties near a national wildlife refuge, reports Wade Rawlins. That site drew vigorous opposition from many local residents, environmentalists and the state's top political leaders.

The sites in North Carolina to be considered are Hale's Lake in Camden and Currituck counties and Sandbanks in Gates County.

They are within about 50 miles of Naval Air Station Oceana, where the fighter jet squadrons would be based.

But local officials in both counties as well as state leaders have expressed opposition to locating the airfield in the counties.

State Senate leader Marc Basnight of Manteo issued an immediate statement vowing to continue to oppose the sites.

"For nearly a decade, Senator Basnight has opposed the Navy's efforts to build an OLF in northeastern North Carolina," said Schorr Johnson, a spokesman for Basnight. "He has said that locating an OLF in a rural, economically distressed is absolutely unacceptable. With today's disappointing news, Senator Basnight vows to continue to fight on behalf of families who have worked this land for generations."

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said she was discouraged by the Navy's failure to consult with local leaders in Camden, Currituck and Gates counties. She said she would oppose the Navy's efforts to acquire any site that lacks broad local support.

The Navy plans to gather public comments in the spring on the sites.

Gov. Mike Easley is widely expected to veto a bill to provide incentives to the Goodyear tire company.

If so, it would be the eighth veto he's made — as well as the eighth in North Carolina history, since he is the first governor to use the veto.

As this list shows, Easley has vetoed bills on a wide variety of issues: Making legislative appointments, changing mortgage lending laws, changing teacher certification, compensating billboard owners, changing teacher certifications, selling an airport site to Currituck County for a dollar and granting access to state buildings to employees associations.

Hat Tip: Denise Jones

Correction: An earlier version of the post incorrectly said that Easley was the first governor to have veto power. He is the first governor to use the veto.

Opponents of a proposed transfer tax on real estate transactions say it would slow growth in many counties.

But county managers in the areas that have the tax say that hasn't happened.

A bill in the state legislature would give all North Carolina counties permission to levy the tax with voter approval. The N.C. Association of Realtors, among others, has opposed it, saying it would stymie growth and make housing less affordable.

But The Daily Advance in Elizabeth City reports that managers of the six coastal counties that already levy a transfer tax say they have seen "no proof that the tax has slowed growth or led to higher home prices."

The paper quotes Pasquotank County Manager Randy Keaton and Currituck County Manager Dan Scanlon:

"All of the counties in the northeast that have the land transfer tax are having problems with too much growth, instead of the reverse," Keaton said.

Scanlon agreed. He said the county's recent property re-valuation showed a tripling of land values over eight years.

"So I am hard-pressed to see where the transfer tax has had any negative impacts on the building practices here," he said.