The State Employees Association of N.C. has launched a Web site and mail campaign intended to counter Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C.'s efforts on health care.

SEANC's campaign is a reaction to a mailer by Blue Cross, which urged people to lobby U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan to oppose the public option for health insurance included in Democratic health reform bills. The flyer followed a premium increase by the company, which didn't exactly help their message.

SEANC says, "Stop," with its Web site, stopbcbs.com.

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In a split decision issued Tuesday, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court acted appropriately in dismissing a lawsuit filed against former State Treasurer Richard Moore.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina sued in 2008 over a dispute about whether Moore's office had provided public records requested by the group regarding the handling of the state retirement system.

Moore's lawyer argued in Wake Superior Court in June 2008 that the association cannot point to a single specific public record that had been withheld, and Judge James E. Hardin dismissed the suit.

In Tuesday's decision, appeals court Judges Cheri Beasley and Wanda G. Bryant ruled that Hardin was right to dismiss the case, ruling that Moore had fulfilled his obligation under the state's public records law to search his files for documents covered under the request filed by SEANC.

Appeals Court Judge Rick Elmore dissented, writing in a separate opinion that the employees group had shown that Moore had likely withheld records he was legally obligated to provide.

UPDATE: Thomas A. Harris, the chief of staff and general counsel for SEANC, said he will recommend to the group's board that they appeal Tuesday's decision to the N.C. Supreme Court.

"The majority opinion misstates the facts of the case and, as the dissent points out, adds a equirement for maintaining a Public Records Act lawsuit that is not in the law itself," Harris said in an e-mail to Dome.

Moore said: "This news, combined with the other recent news that North Carolina's pension fund was the best performing in the country for this past fiscal year, are nice exclamation points to the end of my 8-year-tenure."

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After two scrubbed launches, State Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Dana Cope appeared on NBC's Today Show to criticize a new policy that puts state employees who are obese or smokers in a more expensive health plan.

Cope was featured in a story postponed from Thursday's and, then, Friday's shows that highlighted the changes in the state employees health plan that take effect in the next two years. North Carolina is only the second state to impose the financial penalty on the obese.

State health plan officials are aiming to both improve workers' health and bring down medical costs. Smoking and obesity are both linked to a variety of maladies that are expensive to treat. On the show, Cope emphasized his organization's criticism that the health plan is pushing penalties for bad lifestyles instead of rewards for good health.

"It’s all stick and no carrots," Cope said. "There’s a proper way to do that and it’s not all based on punishment. It should be incentives built in."

Here's a link to the whole story.  

Dana Cope, president of the State Employees Association of N.C., got bumped.

Now we're not saying he was bumped by the dog who can read. But the dog was on the Today Show this morning and Cope was not. Just sayin'.

Cope was invited so he could decry the State Health Plan's initiative to charge smokers and obese people more for benefits. SEANC sent a message to members, encouraging them to tape the appearance (since they'd all be at work and not watching TV, of course).

So, like any self-respecting blogger, Dome got up early to watch and post.

Dome, who rarely catches the Today Show, did see a segment about Willow the dog who does tricks on cue card command, coverage of Harry Connick Jr.'s outrage over a blackface performance on an Australian variety show and a story about Michelle Obama's genealogy.

Cope's appearance has been rescheduled for Friday. Woof!

Rep. Earl Jones called a news conference Tuesday to announce his longshot effort to legalize and regulate video gambling has new endorsements.

The Black Caucus and the State Employees Association of North Carolina support the bill, which would take for the state 20 cents for every dollar spent on video poker machines. Dropping video gambling machines in bars, convenience stores and other establishments across the state could raise nearly $500 million in new revenue, Jones said.

And perhaps anticpating arguments about proliferating gambling across the state, Jones repeatedly stated his opinion that video gaming is no different than the lottery.

"Gambling activity is gambling activity, whether you're talking about a video lottery or a scratch-off ticket," said Jones, a Greensboro Democrat.

Dana Cope, present of SEANC, which represents 55,000 public employees, said the new revenue would allow the state to continue to provide needed services.

"North Carolina's government made this decision. We as a public made this decision when we voted to support the lottery in North Carolina," Cope said. "This is just the natural progression to regulate this industry to get that revenue income into the coffers of the state."

Video poker machines have left a legacy of corruption in the state. William Thevaos, president of the Entertainment Group of North Carolina, said the fact that the industry wants regulation and taxation shows that things will be different.

"We want to be taxed. We want to be legal," Thevaos said. "We want to create a new industry and we want to work with the state."

More after the jump.

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SEANC is airing more ads against state legislators.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina is running radio ads against Reps. Ray Rapp of Madison County and Van Braxton of Lenoir County, both Democrats. 

As part of an ongoing campaign, ads criticize the legislators for voting for a bill designed to keep the State Health Plan afloat.

"Legislators need to understand this issue is not going away," said Executive Director Dana Cope in a statement. "We will hold them accountable when they make bad decisions, and SEANC will educate constituents when their legislators decide to put a multi-million dollar nonprofit's interests ahead of North Carolina taxpayers."

Previous ads have targeted Senate Majority Leader Hugh Holliman and Reps. Margaret Dickson, Bruce Goforth and Pryor Gibson. 

SEANC wants a bill on the State Health Plan reconsidered.

In a letter to Speaker Joe Hackney, State Employees Association of N.C. head Dana Cope wrote that a recent ethics allegation raises questions about the way a recent House bill was handled.

In the letter, Cope alleges that an insurance company lobbied a state legislator to get the bill killed, and that the matter was referred to the State Bureau of Investigation. 

Earlier this month, the Legislative Ethics Committee reported that a lawmaker said he was approached by a lobbyist with an offer to get a constituent's debt forgiven in exchange for killing a bill. 

Though Cope names names, committee members did not identify either the legislator or the lobbyist, and neither they nor Attorney General Roy Cooper's office would confirm if the SBI was investigating.

Cope argued that the allegations over the House bill raise questions about fixes to the State Health Plan signed into law by Gov. Beverly Perdue, since the insurance company was consulted by legislators about the State Health Plan fix.

"It seems inconceivable to me that anyone would have faith in in the vote on that bill after recent events," Cope said in the letter.

He asked for Hackney to order the House to reconsider the State Health Plan bill.