A new ad by Attorney General Roy Cooper highlights his role in dismissing the charges against three Duke University lacrosse players.

John McCain is also registering students in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate's campaign held a membership drive this week at three colleges: Duke University in Durham, Elon University in the Triad and UNC-Wilmington.

Students were given help registering to vote and joining the N.C. Students for McCain-Palin group.

Duke Students for McCain-Palin will also hold a "Country First" tailgate party on Saturday before the football game with the U.S. Naval Academy.

The N.C. House and Senate overwhelmingly approved a sweeping package of anti-gang measures today that include new penalties for gang-related activity.

The legislation is punitive part of a carrot and stick approach to help reduce gang activity across the state. A Governor's Crime Commission report that said there are more than 550 gangs in the state and nearly 15,000 gang members, Dan Kane reports.

There was no debate in the House, which passed it by a 110-1 vote. In the Senate, the vote was 45-0 after a short debate.

The legislation creates new felonies for those who commit drive-by shootings, take part in gang activities, or solicit others to join gangs. There are also new felonies for gang members who threaten others who try to leave, or threaten those who try to help members leave a gang.

Property acquired for or derived from gang activity could be subject to forfeiture.

More after the jump.

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Orrin Pilkey says accidents will happen.

The Duke University geology professor told Dome that if drilling for natural gas is allowed off the North Carolina coast, it's a matter of time before some kind of a spill happens.

But it won't necessarily be as catastrophic as drilling critics contend.

Pilkey said that several factors could determine the effects of a spill. If it's off the continental shelf, the spill would more likely affect the Virginia coast because of the gulf stream. The effects would also depend on whether the material was in a tanker or a pipeline.

He said pipelines are safer because they can be shut off during a storm, while tankers tend to have bigger spills that can damage large areas. But both are subject to what he called, borrowing a phrase, "normal accidents," or spills that are easy to foresee and impossible to prevent.

"The idea that we will get away scot-free is nonsense," he said.

Mike Munger says the state is "dragging its feet" on Libertarian registrations.

The Libertarian gubernatorial nominee and Duke University political science professor tells Dome that the party had more than 13,000 registered voters in 2005.

When the Libertarians lost party status, those voters became unaffiliated, though they should be able to re-register now that it is a party again. But Munger says some of the state's largest boards of elections have not yet posted the forms online to allow it.

"How can we register people as Libertarian when they won't change the forms?" he writes in an e-mail. "The state is intentionally dragging its feet, in violation of the law, and the expressed will of more than 100,000 voters."

As of 8:45 a.m. today, the Wake County board of elections' online form did not include the Libertarian Party, listing only Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated. The Mecklenburg County form and the Guilford County form also lacked the Libertarian option.

The party was recognized in late May, but had only 29 registered members as of this morning.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand said he won't pursue this session legislation that would require students attending public and private colleges in North Carolina to spend at least 20 hours a semester tutoring or mentoring public school students.

Rand said he would try to rework his bill for next year after hearing a lot of concern from college officials. He said he wants it to be more "volunteer oriented" and not something that creates a new bureaucracy for volunteerism.

"It would require a great deal of planning," said Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat.

Rand filed his bill after two college students were recently killed by gunfire in the Triangle: UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Eve Carson and Duke University graduate student Abhijit Mahato. The community service program would be named after them.

It would have required most students entering UNC system schools and private colleges in the fall to begin volunteering. Private colleges would have had to participate or lose out on two state financial aid programs.

By Jan. 1, 2012, all bachelor's degree recipients would have had to have completed the community service requirement.

The Senate debate today was not entirely humorless.

But there were not as many quips as at some political debates. One brief laugh came for a quip by Democratic nominee Kay Hagan, who argued that she would work across the aisles if elected, citing a classic North Carolina rivalry.

"Let me tell you, having had a son at Duke and a daughter at Carolina, I know how to work through partisanship," she said.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole got a few nervous giggles for what turned out to be a straight line. Just before kicking off her opening remarks, the Salisbury Republican said she was going to fight back against attacks from Hagan.

"Since my opponent has taken a rather hard line, I will follow suit," she said.

She then proceeded to attack Hagan on taxes, illegal immigration and energy. 

George W. Bush is not the only president or ex-president  in the Triangle today.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter were spotted on a Durham walking trail Friday morning — along with big guys in suits with ear pieces, Rob Christensen reports.

It was not clear why the Carters were in Durham. A Duke University spokeswoman said Carter was not scheduled to speak there.

Bush will be in Raleigh this evening for a fundraiser for Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the GOP candidate for governor.

Renowned historian John Hope Franklin talks about his reaction to the nomination of Barack Obama for president. (Courtesy Duke University)

John Hope Franklin says Barack Obama's nomination is "amazing."

In a brief interview posted on Duke University's Web site, the 93-year-old renowned historian says that he did not think an African-American nominee for president would happen in his lifetime.

Franklin, who is black, said that he used to joke about it.

My mother and I used to have a game we'd play out in public. She would say if anyone asks what you want to be when you grow up, tell them you want to be the first Negro president of the United States — and just the words were so far-fetched, so incredible that we used to really have fun just saying it.

Franklin, who endorsed Obama in the primary, said he is hesitant to talk about the obstacles.

"Anyone who's lived in the United States 10 minutes knows that they exist," he said. "The question is does he have the capacity and the resources to overcome them?"

Hat Tip: Anne Blythe