The chair of the N.C. Real Estate Commission is considering whether to spend commission money on a trip to Dubai next month for a conference organized by a real estate license law organization.

The commission does not receive tax dollars but draws its revenue from real estate license fees. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is a popular tourist destination.

The Association of Real Estate License Law Officials has offered to subsidize the travel for the commission's chair, Marsha Jordan of Lincolnton, by paying her registration, hotel and part of her airfare, said Phillip Fisher, the commission's executive director. No decision has been made, Fisher said. Commission members are considering sending Jordan to show their continued support for the association.

"It was with the understanding that it would have to be at little or no epense to the commission," Fisher said. "We’re obviously very sensitive to the budget impolications and the budget in general."

In the past, several commission members and staff have served as officers in ARELLO. The state commission's director of administration, Fran Whitley, was president last year and is slated to attend the Dubai conference completely at the organization's expense, Fisher said. ARELLO held a meeting in Asheville last year and Dubai sent representatives.

Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges is leaving shortly for Iraq where he will both teach a business seminar and write a daily blog on his experiences.

Hodges will be a visiting professor at American University at Sulaimani for 10 days, lecturing an advanced course on business and ethics and law. He will also visit Dubai, Rob Christensen reports.

While he is in Iraq, Hodges will be writing a daily blog about what he learns in the town located in the Kurdish dominated north of Iraq. The blog, which will begin Feb. 4th, is called the Tarheel Democracy Dispatch. You can read it here.

"I'm teaching over there for the adventure," said Hodges, who is 72.

The program is being run by the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill, where Hodges is an adjunct professor.

The blog was the idea of Joyce Kohn, a Raleigh public relations executive.

Hodges hopes to show the "new Iraq."

"If we can see a different Iraq that people are used to seeing," Hodges said, "it might improve all our perspectives."

Hodges is a retired banker and former deputy and acting commerce secretary under President Jimmy Carter. He was a U.S. Senate candidate in 1978. His father was governor of North Carolina and commerce secretary under President John F. Kennedy.

Hodges will arrive in Iraq on Saturday, Feb. 7.