* Democracy South, former Finnish ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter of Greensboro are among the North Carolina victims of financier Bernie Madoff.

* Blogger Gordon Smith points out that Sen. Steve Goss' blog libel bill casts a wide net over the Internet and would be retroactive to Dec. 9, 2008.

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx gets a suite named for her at the National Republican Congressional Committee for raising $250,000 more than expected last cycle by calling donors individually.

* Attorney General Roy Cooper presses Bank of America about last-minute bonuses for Merrill Lynch employees after receiving federal bailout funds.

After former House Speaker Jim Black revealed he once accepted a half-million dollar loan from a video poker lobbyist in 2000, a sardonic joke made its way around the capital:

Jim Black asked Don Beason for a $500,000 loan. No problem, Beason replied, but it'll have to be in quarters.

The loan was no joke, however. The revelation effectively ended Beason's lobbying career, and state investigators are still looking into the circumstances of the loan and Beason's ties to video poker.

As a contract lobbyist, Beason had a wide variety of clients, but few as long-term as video poker. From 1993 to 2000, he represented the N.C. Amusement Machine Association, a video poker operators group. His son, Mark, also lobbied on its behalf from 1999 to 2002.

Beason lobbied for a wide variety of gambling interests, advocating for riverboat gambling in Wilmington, the creation of a state lottery as well as video poker. In 2001 and 2002, he also represented the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, a Indian nation in Oklahoma that runs casinos.

After the jump, a look into state newspaper archives.

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