The legislature passed a resolution today honoring former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms.

Helms, a five-term U.S. senator from North Carolina and icon of the conservative movement that helped propel Ronald Regan to the presidency in 1980, died last July.

A half-dozen members of the House black caucus sat outside the chamber while the resolution was debated, Kevin Kiley reports. Many didn't vote. One senator, Julia Boseman of New Hanover County, voted against the resolution.

Democrats and Republicans in both chambers spoke about Helms' legacy, notably his devotion to constiuients.

"His personal commitment to serving constituient needs is legendary," said Sen. Eddie Goodall, a Weddington Republican.

They also spoke on the senator's steadfast adherence to conservative principles.

"He always lived his beliefs," said Mike Morris, the Senate Chaplain.

North Carolinians could use their driver's licenses to tell doctors that they have a living will under a bill approved by the Senate Thursday.

The legislation, sponsored by Union County Republican Sen. Eddie Goodall, would allow driver's license holders to indicate on their license whether they have a living will on file with the Secretary of State.

That would alert doctors who might be treating license holders that they have left specific instructions as to whether to keep them alive with life support devices.

The bill is called the Terri Schiavo Act, named after the Florida woman at the center of a seven-year legal battle by her husband to disconnect her from life support after she was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. In 2005, her feeding tube was removed and she died of dehydration.

A coalition of non-partisan, government watchdog groups joined with Republican legislators Thursday to push for televising the state legislature.

North Carolina is among the few holdout states that don't broadcast video of their lawmakers by the Internet or television. (Audio streaming is available on the Internet for House and Senate floor sessions and limited committee meetings.) Two Republicans, Sen. Eddie Goodall, of Union County, and Rep. Ric Killian, of Charlotte, said state government remains out of reach to most North Carolinians.  

"My constituents," Killian said, "They can see their school board...their city council...their county commission and...their federal government on TV, but they can't see their state government."

Many cities and counties broadcast local boards and commissions on local access cable channels, and Congress is the star of C-SPAN. A House study commission last year reported favorably on the idea of televising the legislature, which could cost more than $1 million to start up. Representatives of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform and the Sunshine Center at Elon University back the plan.

Connie Book, who heads the Sunshine Center and is associate dean at Elon's school of communications, underscored that televising the legislature, making it more accessible to the public, is more important now that the news media is shrinking and devoting fewer resources to covering government.

"The end result," Book said, "is a lack of oversight."

Update: House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight both said through spokesmen that they fully support televising the legislature but the state can't afford to pay for it in the midst of a deep recession. The House recently began archiving recorded floor sessions on its Web site.

A bill would look into asking you about end-of-life plans at the DMV.

Sen. Eddie Goodall, a Union County Republican, said he filed the bill to try to prevent situations like the Terri Schiavo case, in which the husband and parents of a Florida woman in a vegetative state fought over whether to keep her on life support.

Goodall wants to study whether the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles should ask drivers whether they have an advance directive or living will when they renew their driver's license.

The state would not advocate for or against having a living will or what it should say, but the response would be noted on licenses.

That would help family members determine if they should keep searching for a living will and might encourage some who don't have one to look into it, Goodall said.

"I've talked to a lot of nurses and people in palliative care," he said. "They say there's a big need for more education about living wills becaues families go through misery trying to make these end-of-life decisions.

"It would make it much easier if their loved one made the decision for them."

More recent Senate bills of note:

S.B. 439: Tax on Lottery Winnings, Sen. Eddie Goodall

S.B. 440: Establish Gestational Surrogacy Agreements, Sen. Tony Rand

S.B. 451: Strengthen Driver Education, Sen. Austin Allran

S.B. 456: Expand Energy Star Sales Tax Holiday, Sen. John Snow

More state Senate bills of note:

S.B. 376: Honor Jim Long, Sen. Tony Foriest

S.B. 377: Low Academic Performance/No Sports, Sen. Charlie Albertson

S.B. 378: Counties May Fund Charter Schools, Sen. Eddie Goodall

S.B. 379: Remove Cap on the Number of Charter Schools, Sen. Goodall

S.B. 380: Collection of Mobile Phone Data/DMV Reports, Sen. Charlie Dannelly

A few of the more interesting Senate bills:

S.B. 172: Allow Charter Schools in 100 Counties, Sen. Eddie Goodall

S.B. 178: Repeal Ban G.S. 95-98, Sen. Larry Shaw

S.B. 179: Sterilization Compensation, Sen. Shaw

S.B. 181: Drivers License Change Expir./8 yrs to 65, Sen. Shaw

S.B. 182: Honor Bob Scott, Sen. Tony Foriest

"Can't state Senators now buy their seats — literally, their chamber chairs — after the refurbishing of the Senate Chamber recently? ... Does that make Senator Goodall's joke run afoul of scalping laws if not truly ethics laws?" — Dome reader Cornbread

In 2005, the state Senate renovated its chambers.

Among the purchases were 50 black leather chairs from Hickory furniture manufacturer Cabot Wrenn.

Senators had the option of getting a plain seat, which would remain government property, or purchasing a monogrammed chair they could take with them after leaving office. The chairs cost $787.95, including shipping, according to Senate clerk Janet Pruitt.

Sen. Eddie Goodall bought his chair. He recently posted an image of it on the online auction site eBay as part of a joking offer to trade his elected office for Carolina-Duke basketball tickets.

Although it is Goodall's chair, he could not really sell or trade it.

Under a state law passed in 2007, no item with a "likeness of any seal or coat of arms of the Senate" may be sold by a private individual.

In addition, the state's ethics law prohibits legislators from asking, accepting or soliciting "anything of value" in exchange for official actions.

It goes without saying that Goodall could not actually trade his post in the legislature either. Any vacancy would be filled by Gov. Beverly Perdue upon the advice of Republicans from his district.

Perdue, a Democrat and graduate of the University of Kentucky, would be unlikely to break the law in order to help a Republican legislator get tickets to a Carolina game.

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Sen. Eddie Goodall will trade his seat in the legislature for basketball tickets.

The Matthews Republican has put his Senate seat up for trade on the popular auction site eBay, in return for tickets to next week's Carolina-Duke game.

"I'm not sure how it works, but I'm just going by what Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich as a guideline," he said, tongue planted in cheek. "He made me aware that these seats are valuable. I don't know whatever happened with that, but it got me thinking maybe my state seat is valuable too."

Goodall went to UNC-Chapel Hill for a year in 1965, transferring to UNC-Charlotte when he didn't make the basketball team. He said he hasn't been to a game against Duke since he slept on the sidewalk overnight that year for tickets.

There are still 2 days and five hours left on the eBay auction, but Goodall was getting worried. He answered a call by immediately asking a reporter if he had tickets to the game.

If he can't trade his Senate seat, the actual chair, two part-time staffers and a volunteer treasurer for tickets, risking fines and prison time, Goodall said he'd have to watch the game from his hotel room in Raleigh after session.

He added that he hoped people understood he was kidding about the whole thing.

"If politicians could laugh at themselves more, people would laugh at them less," he said.

House Majority leader Hugh Holliman held a news conference Thursday morning to push a bill that would ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places.

Rep. Jeff Barnhart, a Cabarrus County Republican, said he is supporting Holliman's bill because his father died of lung cancer, Ben Niolet reports.

When the diagnosis came, doctors asked how long he had smoked. Barnhart said his father had never smoked, but had worked for years with people who did.

"I don't wish that on anybody," Barnhart said.

Holliman said that businesses that have gone smoke free have actually enjoyed an increase in patronage.

"There is no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke," said Holliman, a Lexington Democrat.

Lawmakers acknowledged the bill faces a tough fight in the House.

More after the jump.

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