Sen. Kay Hagan is settling into Washington.

The Greensboro Democrat held a coffee klatsch for constituents in her new office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building this morning.

As a freshman senator, Hagan has one of the less-desirable office spaces, but it's leagues better than the quote-unquote temporary basement room her staff was stuck in while the Minnesota Senate race dragged on. 

The temporary office also delayed Hagan's hiring, since there wasn't enough room for the legislative assistants and constituent services staffers. She's now about 65 to 70 percent staffed, with about 52 employees in D.C. and North Carolina.

For now, the office is sparsely decorated, with just a few scenic photos of the beach and the Triad and several flat-screen TVs. As a reminder of favorite campaign haunts, four of the TVs are named for Greensboro restaurants: Grey's, The Burro, Natty's and M'Couls.

Hagan's new space, Suite 521, used to be part of three different offices: Sens. Kristen Gillibrand, Roland Burris and Wayne Allard. If you crane your neck out of one of Hagan's personal windows, you can just see the Capitol dome.

"I think I might need some curved mirrors in here," Hagan joked. 

Protesters will gather around North Carolina today.

The Tax Day Tea Party events will protest government bailouts and record federal spending, among other issues, in 30 locations around the state.

An event in Charlotte is expected to draw 1,000, including Republican Rep. Sue Myrick. Another event in Edenton will draw on a 1774 protest in that city. Protests are also planned for Raleigh, Greensboro and Asheville.

The events are being coordinated in North Carolina in part by Americans for Prosperity, a small-government advocacy group. Grassroots volunteers have also set up Facebook pages and used Twitter to promote the events.

Staffers from the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Institute will also speak at several events.

A Durham architect was selected today to help design the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.

Philip Freelon and his Freelon Group, along with a team of colleagues, were among six finalists in a competition to design the new Smithsonian museum, which is expected to be one of the most important architectural works in recent years, Barb Barrett reports.

The museum, expected to open in 2015, will include experiences central to the history and culture of North Carolina, a former slave state and the site of such historic civil rights events as the Greensboro sit-in.

Freelon envisions a stone building crowned in shimmering copper, evoking the ancient art of West Africa, the American struggle for equality and the joy of the African-American communal experience.

Freelon , whose firm formed a team with three other companies, said in an interview last month that the group wanted a museum that was "both dignified and exuberant."

"We tried to let the site tell us what it wants to be," Freelon said at the time. "We know we want this building to be more than a vessel that holds exhibits, not just a beautiful building but one that is part of the themes of what the museum will be."

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller is seeking $185.5 million in earmarks.

The Raleigh Democrat released his list of 59 requested appropriations for the federal budget on his Web site.

The largest request is $53 million for the Arts in Education program through the U.S. Department of Education. The smallest is $103,000 for forensic technical training in Guilford County.

Other notable earmarks:

* Recruiting and training young professionals in the Teach for America program, $25 million.

* Funding research on renewable energy and plant biotechnology, $7 million.

* Creating an engineering center near Burlington for "vertical lift" technology, $2.35 million. 

* Renovating the War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro, $2.3 million. 

Miller also requested several of the same earmarks as Rep. David Price, including money for Reading Is Fundamental, the National Textile Center and Green Square. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue will lead one of the Obama administration's five regional discussions on health reform.

Perdue, who was a hospital administrator and health consultant before entering politics, will lead a discussion in Greensboro on March 31st. Other sites will be in California, Iowa, Michigan and Vermont, Rob Christensen reports.

The announcement came on the day that President Obama held a health summit in Washington.

Details of the event will be announced later.

David Young is going on a listening tour.

The former Buncombe County commissioner, currently the odds-on favorite for Democratic Party state chair, will head to seven cities to meet with local organizers and volunteers.

After a stop in Fayetteville Tuesday, Young will be in at the state Democratic Party headquarters in Raleigh at noon around the opening of the legislative session. 

He'll be at Foster's Market in Durham at 8 a.m., then at the Chapel Hill Library at noon tomorrow, followed by stops in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Charlotte. (A full schedule is here.) 

Young has the backing of outgoing chair Jerry Meek and Gov. Beverly Perdue, among others. Since he announced last week that he was running, two other candidates have dropped out. 

Lots can be learned from the Center for Responsive Politics' new report on Congress' newest members.

The Washington-based non-profit website offers online campaign databases about every member of Congress, breaking down donations and expenditures and ferreting out details about industry and lobbyist support, Barb Barrett reports.

The group released data today on North Carolina's newest senator, Kay Hagan, who was sworn in Tuesday.

Among the tidbits:

* The website ActBlue was Hagan's top donor. Donations linked to the Democratic website amounted to $1.2 million among Hagan's itemized donations.

* Nearly 40 percent of Hagan's financial support came from out of state. Two states rang up more than $500,000 for her: North Carolina and California. Within North Carolina, her top geographical support came from the Triad — not surprising since Hagan is from Greensboro.

* Hagan received $10,000 each from political action committees representing such groups as steelworkers, airline pilots, teachers, firefighters and Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu, Tom Carper, Patrick Leahy and Richard Durbin.

Details on Hagan (and all the other new House and Senate members) are available here.

The urban mayors have their wishlist ready.

The N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition released a list today with $2.8 billion in infrastructure projects they said could be started immediately.

The list includes new buses for the city of Raleigh, fire stations in Greensboro and Cary, light rail enhancements in Charlotte, a public library renovation in Chapel Hill, and repairs to sidewalks, water and sewer lines and parks around the state.

The group said it hopes to persuade the state and federal government to direct some of a planned economic stimulus package to local government.

"Our goal in releasing this list is not to advocate for individual projects, but to show cities' ability to deploy the stimulus money quickly on important local infrastructure projects," said Rocky Mount Mayor David Combs, co-chair of the coalition's economic development committee.

The nonpartisan coalition was founded in 2001 and represents the state's 26 largest cities.

Update: The list does not include a request for $20 million in Community Development Block Grants for a "minor league baseball museum" in Durham that was included in a wishlist from the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

That project and others have been criticized as pork by some critics.

Correction: The group recently changed its name from the N.C. Metropolitan Coalition. 

President George W. Bush has arrived in Greensboro.

Bush is making a quick stop in Greensboro today for a roundtable discussion at Youth Focus, a nonprofit that mentors children of prisoners. The event is closed to the public and the press.

The White House released a transcript of Bush's brief remarks. Bush said he set a goal for the nation that from 2003 to 2008 to match 100,000 children with mentors. As of September, that goal has been surpassed.

"I want to thank you all for being a part of a program that hopefully is bringing hope to people's lives. I think it is," Bush said. 

Update: Post now includes remarks from Bush. 

Linda Carlisle says diversity will strengthen the new administration.

The retired Greensboro businesswoman, who was added Monday to Gov.-elect  Beverly Perdue's transition team, said that having male and female staffers with diverse ethnic backgrounds will improve decision-making.

"We reach better decisions and get better results when we have all levels of diversity," she told Dome. "It will make whatever is done better, stronger and more effective."

As a vice president at a major North Carolina bank in the 1970s, Carlisle remembers when few women or minorities held positions of power. More recently, she was the only woman on the original board of the state lottery.

A longtime resident of the Triad, she said geographic diversity is also important for the newly elected governor.

"It's always difficult to ensure that those outside of (Raleigh) have a sense that they're being heard," she said. 

Carlisle first met Perdue when she was lieutenant governor and worked as a fundraiser and volunteer for her gubernatorial campaign. She was appointed to the lottery commission and the UNC-Greensboro board of trustees by Gov. Mike Easley.