Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a new law today to require public disclosure of information about those who die in state mental hospitals and other state facilities.

The governor had proposed new laws to shed more light on deaths at state facilities during Sunshine Week last March, Rob Christensen reports.

"This legislation puts the safety of our patients first by ensuring that important information in death records is available to the public," Perdue said in a statement. "By increasing transparency, we will make state facilities more accountable to the people in their care, restore public confidence and rebuild public trust."

This is the second law that was prompted by a series published in The News & Observer last year that outlined abuses in the state mental health system. The other law required that deaths in state facilities be reported to the medical examiner.

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Electronic Data Services, the Texas-based computer services company that processes Medicaid claims, will not protest the state's decision to replace it with a Virginia competitor.

EDS representatives met with Dan Stewart, assistant secretary with the state Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 12, to present its case for the state to negate a new, $265.2 million contract with Computer Sciences Corp. EDS asked the state to let it keep the work, or to rebid the job, Lynn Bonner reports.

Stewart countered all EDS' points. EDS, which has processed the state's Medicaid claims for 32 years, decided to bow out.

In a letter to Stewart dated Friday, an EDS vice president said the decision not to file a protest was "based in the best spirit of cooperation."

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton will not stick around for the administration of Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

Benton, a former Raleigh city manager, was named secretary in May 2007 and wound up dealing with the the debacle within the mental health system that was highlighted by a N&O series earlier this year. Legislators appreciated his management skills, and he was widely seen as a potential holdover into the incoming Perdue administration to continue straightening out the costly and fatal flaws in the mental health system.

"He indicated to us early on that he would be stepping down," said Perdue spokesman David Kochman.

Benton will stay on in some capacity for a brief time while Perdue searches for a successor, Kochman said.

Benton said he told the Perdue team he did not want to continue as secretary but that he would help with the transition.

"I'm trying to get out of the day to day management responsibilities that I've had for a number of years," he said. "I've done 40 years of public service, most of that being on the firing line management positions. I think I've completed that type of work."

The SBI has ended its probe into the purchase of portrait by former state mental hospital director Patsy Christian without action.

The investigation was requested by the state Department of Health and Human Services in June following reports in The News & Observer about a painting of herself that Christian commissioned from J. Lee Harris, a hospital nurse who sidelined as an artist, reports Michael Biesecker.

The artwork was paid for using vending machine revenue from John Umstead Hospital that the state budget manual says should be spent to benefit patients.

Following public uproar about the portrait, Christian resigned her position as chief executive officer of Central Regional Hospital in Butner and was reassigned to a newly created position within the department at 95 percent of her former salary.

DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton ordered that the portrait not hang in the new hospital for which it was commissioned and that state money paid for the artwork be recovered. Harris refunded the $572 she was paid for the "executive portrait" and its gilded frame.

Though state law explicitly forbids the awarding of state service contracts to state employees, Erik Hooks, an assistant SBI director, wrote in an Aug. 14 letter that he had concluded "no further inquiry by the SBI is necessary at this time."

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Despite budget cuts and cost overruns at a state mental hospital in Butner, hospital Director Patsy Christian found money to have her portrait made.

The oil painting was done by a subordinate and paid for with $250 that was intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

Christian ordered the portrait for delivery shortly before the planned November 2007 opening of the hospital, which is intended as the centerpiece of an ambitious reform. But a fire, concerns over design flaws that endanger patient safety and the failure to hire enough qualified staff have kept Central Regional empty.

The portrait was paid for using the money collected from vending machines at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. State law says the money from vending machines should be used for recreational activities for patients. Christian, 60, oversees Umstead and Dix, which are scheduled to be closed next month.

Christian, whose annual salary is $119,759, declined requests for an interview.

Calls to the artist, J. Lee Harris, a nurse supervisor at Umstead were not returned.

In a statement attributed to Harris and released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the artist said the painting was a gift to the people of North Carolina and that the payment she received barely covered the cost of materials.

"Her unconventional beauty, her sense of humor and her blinding intelligence are engraved in my mind," Harris said of her boss. "I knew that with my skill and desire, I would create a painting to be enjoyed by many and become engaged with this historic moment." 

Debbie Crane rejected an order to lie to a reporter in 2003.

According to a story by veteran N&O reporter Pat Stith today, he met with Crane and a top staffer at the state Department of Health and Human Services five years ago on a story.

A source had tipped Stith that the department had mistakenly sent Medicaid payments worth $200 million to hospitals that did not qualify and would now have to repay the money.

At first, the official, Gary Fuquay, said he did not have the information. Then, Crane took Stith aside and said the governor's office had ordered him to lie. She said they would not and told Fuquay to give Stith the information.

Crane's admission about the governor's office was off the record then. But she was fired Tuesday by Gov. Mike Easley, who, she said, sent word to DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton that he had "lost confidence" in her. I now have Crane's permission to tell the story.

Fuquay, now retired, said whatever directions he had been given came from Crane. 

The Easley administration today fired Debbie Crane, the state official who handled News & Observer reporters' requests for information as they worked on a series about mental health.

Crane, 48, who was public affairs director at the state Department of Health and Human Services, said department secretary Dempsey Benton told her yesterday that Gov. Mike Easley "wanted me out. He had lost confidence in me."

She was officially fired this morning by another department official, she said, after Benton went to Easley's press conference about mental health issues.

Crane said her dismissal revolved around the Easley administration's attempts to get former DHHS secretary Carmen Hooker Odom to talk to The N&O about her supposed opposition to the 2001 mental health reforms. There is no evidence that Hooker Odom opposed the bill, although Easley told reporters late last year — and again today — that she had vigorously opposed the legislation.

Crane said Hooker Odom contacted her in early January about talking to The N&O. Crane said she e-mailed her that, "'These stories are going to be terrible. It's up to you. I wouldn't call them back.'"

"She's in a different role now," Crane said. "She's out of it."

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* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx introduces bill to add automated pre-recorded campaign calls to the national Do Not Call registry for telemarketers. (Watauga Democrat)

* Lieutenant governor candidate Hampton Dellinger supports financial compensation for victims of state's forced-sterilization program. (W-SJ)

* Rep. Bill Daughtridge, who is running for treasurer, says he opposes using cash incentives to lure business, prefers infrastructure improvements. (TBJ)

* Secretary of Health and Human Services Dempsey Benton announces changes in leadership of Broughton mental hospital in Morganton. (N&O)

* The Carolina Stompers have canceled their planned protest of the Vance Aycock Dinner, saying that Richard Moore's letter is enough for them. (AC-T)

* John Edwards laid off his chief media consultant, Marius Penczner, a month ago, but didn't tell anyone until now. Media consulting will now be done in house. (The Fix)

* Rep. Thomas Wright may have overbilled the state Department of Health and Human Services for travel; a legislative ethics committee's hearings are on hold. (WS-N)

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx is co-sponsor of a bill that would permanently ban taxes on Internet access; others hope just to extend a moratorium. (Watauga Democrat)

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom said the state's mental health reform needs a reform of its own.

In a half-hour documentary on WRAL Wednesday night, she said that local mental health offices need to be more accountable to the state.

In particular, Hooker Odom noted that the state did not have any authority over the Albemarle Mental Health Center, which paid its head $319,000 a year.

Her remarks echoed her concerns about so-called "local management entities" from an Aug. 17 letter she sent to state legislators.

The interview was conducted shortly before she left office.

The documentary, "State of Minds," can be seen in full here. Extra footage of reporter Cullen Browder's interview with Hooker Odom is available here and here.