* The N.C. Bear Hunters Association tells Gov. Beverly Perdue it'll help out next time she has a run in with a bear.

* Local governments in Transylvania County are interested in building homes to provide to local school teachers.

* Consultant Gary Pearce tells a fascinating story about oilman Walter Davis sending $20,000 in cash to Jim Hunt. (They sent it back.) 

* Liberal columnist Chris Fitzsimon hails a survey of CEOs by Chief Executive Magazine that finds North Carolina No. 2 for business climate.

More than $100 million is coming to North Carolina for housing.

Part of the federal stimulus package signed into law recently, the money will help homeless families move into permanent homes and renovate low-income housing.

It is part of more than $10 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development heading around the country.

About $86 million of the state money will go to the state and then be passed to local communities in block grants for homelessness prevention and to help companies build affordable housing.  

Much of the money is focused on projects that can be put under contract within 120 days. (N&O) 

State legislators have now asked for $778.7 million.

A total of 130 bills filed since the start of the session have requested special appropriations for various state programs and causes.

That's about 25 percent of the likely $3 billion budget shortfall.

Thirty-one of the bills are companions filed in the other chamber, and three other bills are similar. Bills filed in both chambers total $162.3 million.

The 68 House spending bills total $523.8 million; 61 Senate spending bills, $531.8 million.

The largest spending bill to date is Sen. Larry Shaw's request for $173 million to compensate victims of the state's sterilization program, which is unlikely to pass. The second largest is Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand's request for $113.5 million to shore up the State Health Plan, which is likely to pass.

Other large requests are for $93 million to supplement teacher salaries, $50 million for wastewater treatment projects, $50 million for low-income housing, $44 million to pay teacher bonuses, and $36 million for public health programs.

The smallest request is for $10,000 to upgrade a day care.

Only 11 spending bills totaling $70.8 million have a Republican among their primary sponsors.

The bills also request $434.8 million in the 2010-'11 budget.

State Rep. Deborah Ross wants to let other cities follow Charlotte's model.

The Raleigh Democrat plans to reintroduce a bill that would allow municipalities that come up with regional mass-transit plans levy an additional sales tax to fund it.

A half-cent local sales tax in Mecklenburg County levied since 2007 has paid for city buses and a new light-rail line in Charlotte.

Because they are viewed as to a certain extent voluntary, sales taxes are often more popular than other taxes with voters.

Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, is expected to introduce a companion bill. Both bills will also include requirements that municipalities show they have come up with a workable regional plan before levying the tax.

Ross noted that municipalities already have six options for paying for transit systems, including vehicle registration fees, rental car taxes and property taxes.

"This would just add one more option," she said. 

On other issues, she said she would work to maintain the state's funding of the N.C. Housing Trust Fund, expand child care options for community college students, reconsider rules on children testifying in court and keep the State Health Plan affordable.

Victims of Hurricane Katrina will protest at U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole's office today.

Displaced New Orleans residents and local housing advocates will gather outside Dole's Raleigh office on New Bern Avenue to protest inaction on a housing bill. 

A bill to help homeowners, renters and public housing residents hurt by Katrina passed the House, but a companion bill has not yet passed the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, on which Dole sits.

The protest will begin at 12:45 p.m. 

In the afterword of a new book, presidential candidate John Edwards lays out his own moon shot: Ending poverty in America in 30 years.

Edwards is one of three editors of "Ending Poverty in America," a compilation of essays published through The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill.

His own contribution is fairly short — just 10 pages in a 288-page book. But it includes a number of policy proposals, based on the previous chapters:

* Support unions. "With strong unions, service jobs can be the foundation of the middle class, as manufacturing jobs once were," he writes.

* Expand housing vouchers. "Vouchers — rather than housing projects built in low-income areas — allow families to escape to safe communities with good schools," he writes.

* End the "marriage penalty." "To strengthen families, we should address the marriage penalty that still hits many poor workers with a massive tax increase if they choose to get married," he writes.

Edwards also proposes raising the minimum wage, increasing spending on community colleges, opposing predatory lending, making freshman year free for college students with part-time jobs and targeting teen pregnancy.