With a payment of $55,000, the state of North Carolina has settled a lawsuit over why Wayne Hurder was fired last October as deputy commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles.

Top officials at DMV and the state Department of Transportation originally said Hurder had exerted improper influence in several DMV hirings, Bruce Siceloff reports.

DOT released documents suggesting that Hurder had shaped some personnel decisions to favor job candidates backed by a Greene County political patronage boss, Eddie Carroll Thomas.

Hurder contended in his lawsuit that he was fired for refusing to make improper personnel moves favored by his boss, Bill Gore, who was then the DMV commissioner. The Office of State Personnel later found there was no basis for Hurder's allegations against Gore.

Now Hurder has dropped his lawsuit after DMV agreed in late April to pay him $55,000 and to change his personnel files to indicate that he had resigned. He says the state paid him because it feared he would prevail when the case came before a state hearing officer.

More after the jump.

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Beverly Perdue lent her voice to the pro-choice cause — literally.

Last year, the lieutenant governor recorded a brief telephone message encouraging pro-choice voters to turn out in five key legislative races.

The robocalls, for NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina and Planned Parenthood's political action committees, were made on behalf of Rep. Rick Glazier, Sen. Julia Boseman and House Democratic candidates Ty Harrell, Greer Beaty and Ed Ridpath.

Melissa Reed, NARAL's executive director, said she was looking for close races in which the calls might make a difference as well as the highest-ranking female elected official she could find.

"Especially for our female members, hearing (a) woman's voice really resonates," she said.

After the jump, more details and the script.

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