From the moment Mary Easley's big raise was made public last summer, N.C. State University's chancellor and provost came under blistering attack, with many parents, students and others sending letters and e-mail messages questioning how they could have made such a deal.

One man wrote three times, exasperated at a lack of explanation about how the wife of the sitting governor got her job. One alumnus wrote only a few words: "What are you people thinking? Idiots."

The seeds of such anger were planted in 2005, when those top administrators created a job for Easley, who was then first lady. The picture that emerges from more than 1,300 pages of documents provided to a federal grand jury is of N.C. State leaders who acted at the behest of the highest-ranking person in state government: Gov. Mike Easley.

The former chancellor who helped arrange the deal, James Oblinger, appeared today at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, where a grand jury is meeting. (N&O)