* Rank-and-file lawmakers will get their first look at the state budget proposal today. A key detail that has yet to emerge is how many state positions would be eliminated. (AP)

* The budget proposal forces local schools to do their own cutting and orders that they protect the classroom. (Tavern)

* Unions don't yet have much to show for a big push they made in the state during the last election cycle. (N&O)

* Lawyers are expected to argue today a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by news organizations against Gov. Mike Easley over the deletion of e-mail messages. (AP)

* Congress is on break, but the advertising and lobbying blitz over health care reform begins. (NYT)

BECAUSE SHE SAYS SO: Gov. Beverly Perdue dropped a $1.6 billion list of proposed tax increases. The sugar meant to help the bitter pill go down: some of them are temporary. The Republicans were not convinced. Speaker Joe Hackney says Perdue's pitch could help budget negotiators actually get somewhere.

POLITICAL NUMBERS: The state wasted $635 million, or 25 percent of the money it spent on community services over three years. Meanwhile, Rep. David Lewis, a Dunn Republican, launched a campaign to show that the Democrats are using faulty math in describing a budget deficit. And early this week, the legislature enacted its 272nd law of the still-going session.

BULGING INBOXES: Perdue toughened the state's policy on e-mail retention, wiping away nearly all of the discretion employees had on deciding whether a message should be kept. Some state government delete keys will appreciate the rest.

IN OTHER NEWS: Federal investigators continue to look at more details of Mary Easley's work at N.C. State University. A Senate team chugged milk fast enough to win $200 for charity. And in a debate over whether to make state laws gender neutral, Rep. George Cleveland, a Jacksonville Republican, noted that he had lots of respect for "the female race."

One her first day as governor, Beverly Perdue pledged to increase government transparency.

"Government must be more accountable to the people," Perdue said in her Jan. 10 inaugural address. "The state's business must be conducted in the sunshine, to inspire confidence, not cynicism."

Perdue appears to largely be living up to that promise. She makes her weekly schedule available and frequently takes questions from reporters, and her administration released travel and other records that disclosed former Gov. Mike Easley's use of private planes and other activities.

And Wednesday, Perdue issued executive orders requiring more transparency in government. She is also expected to soon sign a bill that she backed that would force state mental hospitals to release information about those who die in the facility or within two weeks of being discharged.

But Perdue's administration continues to withhold some key records, such as reports on probationers who committed serious crimes and state employees who had sex with inmates.

"Compared to what it was, [Perdue] has been great," said Don Carrington, vice president of the conservative John Locke Foundation, who said the Easley administration routinely rebuffed his calls and requests for documents. "They return calls and acknowledge requests." (N&O)

On the other hand, employees at the state's psychiatric hospital in Goldsboro could face discipline if they say negative things about its staff or operations.

Gov. Beverly Perdue today toughened a policy for keeping state government e-mail that was left by former Gov. Mike Easley.

Perdue's order strips away some wiggle room state employees may have had to delete e-mail messages that they determined were not related to public business. Now employees must keep all messages for 24 hours so they can be archived every day. Employees can delete spam messages they receive. Easley's order, which Perdue rescinded, allowed employees to decide which messages were related to public business.

"Only when the doors of government are open wide, and the sun truly shines in, can we be sure that our government by the people is working for the people," Perdue said in a news release.

Perdue's order is similar to an order signed by Easley in the waning days of his administration. Several news organizations, including The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer had sued Easley over e-mail retention.

Perdue also signed an order requiring the Department of Commerce to report the names of consultants involved in economic development projects that benefit from state incentive programs.

Update: Perdue's e-mail order also creates a searchable backup system, a spokeswoman said. Most messages would be kept for 10 years. 

* Bob Geary at the Independent Weekly raises questions about the doctorate earned by Timothy Johnson, the newly elected vice chairman of the state Republican party.

* The UNC system has no official policy on administrators maintaining multiple e-mail accounts, reports Eric Ferreri at the N&O's Campus Notes blog.

* During his eight years in office, former Gov. Mike Easley built a reputation for being reclusive and seldom seen in public. Now his official portrait is carrying on the tradition.

* Nearly six months after taking office, Gov. Beverly Perdue is among the nation's most unpopular governors.

An order by Gov. Mike Easley to preserve e-mail was a surprise.

The Raleigh News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer and eight other news organizations had sued the former governor in April after it became clear that some employees in his administration were deleting e-mails to keep them from becoming public.

Negotiations over the still-active lawsuit had ceased.

As late as December, the former governor said he would not give news organizations what they sought and that he thought the two newspapers were writing stories critical of his administration because of a lawsuit.

But Friday he signed an executive order agreeing in principle with many of the principles put forward by the newspapers. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue, who is now the defendant in the lawsuit, said she is reviewing the executive order before she decides whether to modify or accept it. (N&O)

Update: Post now includes a copy of the order.

Former Gov. Mike Easley ordered the state to keep all e-mails.

In one of his last acts in office, Easley signed an executive order that requires state agencies to keep copies of e-mails for at least 10 years and prohibits state employees from deleting messages about state business for at least 24 hours.

It also advises executive branch employees that e-mails are subject to the public records law.

Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts noted that Gov. Beverly Perdue had planned to issue her own order, but Easley beat her to the punch.

On his blog, he notes that the order is double the number of years recommended by a panel after news reports that workers in his administration had deleted some e-mails, though he wonders whether it might allow workers to delete e-mails they decided were not about state business.

"Another question: Why did Easley wait until the end of his administration to issue this order?" Betts writes. "Why not last summer, when it might have done his image some good? Or was he simply waiting until the last minute so his administration would not have to comply with it?" 

John Drescher responded to Gov. Mike Easley's comments.

In an interview with an N&O reporter, the newspaper's executive editor objected to Easley's characterization of the probation problem as being that too many convicted criminals receive probation instead of prison time, Ben Niolet reports.

"Gov. Easley might be the only person in North Carolina who thinks our probation system is working well and that the state is monitoring probationers as it should," Drescher said. "The correction secretary himself has acknowledged the state needs to do a better job."

Easley also blamed an ongoing lawsuit over e-mails for the N&O and Charlotte Observer's treatment of his administration. Drescher said the paper is doing its job by publishing tough stories.

"Our job is to dig, and we're going to keep digging," he said. "We'll do that in a professional way."

Drescher said the parties in the lawsuit are in discussions.

"We believe we've made a reasonable request that all state government e-mail be considered a public record," Drescher said.

Pat McCrory highlighted his proposals for government reform at the Tuesday session on ethics by the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform in Raleigh.

McCrory called for:

* Weekly Internet reports from campaigns showing who gave them money.

* A ban on cash contributions (now limited to $50). 

* A prohibition on legislators raising money for nonprofits. Relatives of several legislators received scholarships in recent years from a nonprofit for which the lawmakers raised money.

* A requirement that legislators publicly stand up and declare their conflict of interest on a piece of legislation.

* A veto of any budget with items added in private sessions and not by the House or Senate during the regular budget process.

* No campaign fundraising by transportation, university or ABC boards. 

* Public listing of all state contracts and bids. 

* Public access to copies of the governor's e-mail. 

Gov. Mike Easley's administration is still having trouble turning over copies of the e-mails of its officials.

On June 27, The News & Observer filed a request with state Department of Health and Human Services for copies of e-mails since May 1 from six officials pertaining to the opening of Central Regional Hospital, the state's new mental hospital in Butner, reports Michael Biesecker.

It took 12 days, until July 8, for the department's public information staff to forward the request for e-mails to the six employees. DHHS public information staffer Mark Van Sciver instructed the six officials to gather the relevant e-mails and respond by July 23.

The first patients are scheduled to move into the hospital on or around July 21.

DHHS public affairs director Tom Lawrence said his office was not trying to delay the records request until after the opening and said those who had the e-mails were busy.

"We have a hospital to open," Lawrence said July 9.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (0)