More that 1,200 people crowded into Weddington High School Tuesday night for a boisterous town hall meeting that evoked passionate sentiments not only about health care, but also immigration and the Obama administration.

"It's not about covering the uninsured in this country, it seems to me it's all about control," Union County businessman Tony Mangum said, voice breaking. "I get emotional because I fear we're losing this country."

A crowd that filled the school auditorium and overflowed into the cafeteria came out for the first of three town halls this week hosted by U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer reports.

Myrick, a Republican, opened the gathering by outlining her own opposition to Democratic health care bills and support for alternatives, including tax credits and continued reliance on the markets.

In the wake of the disruption of former Congressman Tom Tancredo’s speech, conservative groups plan to bring to Chapel Hill next week another major critic of illegal immigration.

Former Rep. Virgil Goode if Virginia is scheduled to speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday April 22nd at 6:30 p.m. at Gardner Hall, Rob Christensen reports.

Goode has been invited by the same campus group, Youth for Western Civilization, who brought in Tancredo, who was prevented from speaking on Monday night by protesters. His speech is being arranged by Team America, Tancredo's political action committee.

The subject of his talk is "Hate Speech, Free Speech and the Multiculturalism."

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp apologized to Tancredo for the disruption.

BURR BURNED: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr doesn't have a Democratic opponent yet — unless you count left-leaning commentators. After the Winston-Salem Republican said he told his wife to take money out of the ATM during last fall's banking crisis, he was criticized by liberal talk show hosts Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and took heat from the Huffington Post.

BUDGET SIMMERS: The U.S. Senate was once described as the saucer used to cool hot bills from the House. It's apparently the other way in the state legislature, where chief budget writer Rep. Mickey Michaux said he'll take his time going over the budget bill rushed over from the Senate last week. Check back next week.

TAX DAY: Thousands of protesters gathered across North Carolina on Wednesday to protest the bank bailouts and the size of the federal budget. The so-called Tea Party protests were tied to the date federal income taxes are due. Meantime, the state Department of Revenue said it was running a few weeks behind in sending out tax refunds.

IN OTHER NEWS: A group of Republicans started Carolina Strategy Group to poll voters on state issues and work with business clients. ... Former Congressman and illegal immigration opponent Tom Tancredo was driven out of UNC-Chapel Hill by angry protesters. ... The state House narrowly approved a bill adding a comprehensive sex education option to public schools and passed a major fix to the State Health Plan that will reduce benefits for state workers.

It took just a few hours for U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo to turn his unpleasant ouster from a UNC-Chapel Hill classroom into a fund-raising opportunity.

Tancredo, a Colorado Republican and strong opponent of illegal immigration, was forced to end his visit Tuesday night after protests by a few dozen students. One student broke a window, and police unleashed pepper spray on others, Barb Barrett reports.

Tancredo didn't get to deliver his speech.

But today, he sent out a fund-raising email to supporters, saying "hundreds of protesters" interrupted his speech. He called it a "riot."

"There is no freedom of speech on hundreds of university campuses today for people who dare to dissent from the radical political agenda of the socialist left and the open borders agitators," he wrote in his email.

Tancredo said he'll be back on campus sometime in the future and noted that former Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode will come to campus next week to speak.

He also urged supporters to give money to his Political Action Committee, Team America.

After the jump, the letter.

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Former Congressman Tom Tancredo, a leading critic of U.S. immigration policy, will be in Chapel Hill Tuesday to speak against the admission of illegal immigrants to colleges and universities.

Tancredo, who unsuccessfully ran for president last year, will talk at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Bingham Hall at 6:30 p.m., reports Rob Christensen.

His talk is being sponsored by a student group called Youth for Western Civilization. It is a new group that opposes mass immigration, “radical multiculturalism,” and affirmative action. Several campuses have chapters of the group.

Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado, is the sponsor of the Mass Immigration Reduction Act which would have imposed an indefinite moratorium on immigration to the United States.

A bill would withhold taxes for workers who may be illegal immigrants.

Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat, said he filed the bill after hearing from the N.C. Department of Revenue that some contractors don't pay income tax.

Under the current system, contractors who have Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, or ITINs, instead of Social Security numbers can avoid having state income tax taken out of their paychecks.

But Hoyle said the state has no way to find those workers later on if they don't end up paying, since federal law prohibits the Internal Revenue Service from sharing information on ITINs to other government agencies.

"You can't get an address. You can't track them down. You can't audit them." he said. "Osama bin Laden could get an ITIN number and nobody would ever check him."

He said the Department of Revenue is losing "hundreds of millions of dollars" from unpaid taxes.

"Everybody should have to pay their taxes," he said. 

Some recent Senate bills of note:

S.B. 943: Expand Film Credit, Sen. Linda Garrou

S.B. 973: Create Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs, Sen. Tony Rand 

S.B. 992: Authorize Mayors to Solemnize Marriage, Sen. Don Davis

S.B. 994: Establish State Athletics Commission, Sen. Dan Clodfelter

S.B. 1006: Withholding on Contractors Identified by ITIN, Sen. David Hoyle 

S.B. 1014: Lottery Trust Fund, Sen. Doug Berger

S.B. 1018: Reduce Plastic Bag Use, Sen. Josh Stein

Rep. Pricey Harrison has titled a few bills in her day.

The Greensboro Democrat, a prolific bill filer, said a good bill title can "put a positive spin on an issue."

She's co-sponsored a few good ones:

Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act: Would prohibit North Carolina's electric utilities from buying coal that comes from so-called "mountaintop removal" methods.

Access to Higher Education: Would prohibit state community colleges and universities from asking students whether they were illegal immigrants.

North Carolina Racial Justice Act: Allows racial discrimination to be taken into consideration when determining whether to impose the death penalty.

Still, she made a distinction between her college bill and, say, the Defense of Marriage Act.

"That was more about taking it out of a discussion of illegal immigration and making it what the bill is really about, which is access to higher education," she said. "The Defense of Marriage Act is a ban on gay marriages — kind of the exact opposite of what the title says."

More after the jump.

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How should you title a bill on a controversial subject?

Another strategy: Don't say what you're doing.

As noted previously, one strategy is to give your bill either a heroic or bland title that gives no indication of its subject matter. But in some cases, you can mention the subject, as long as you leave out a crucial verb:

Eminent Domain: Compensate nonprofits whose properties are taken by the government at a higher price than fair-market value.

Access to Higher Education: Prohibit state colleges and community colleges from asking students whether they are illegal immigrants.

Modify Charter School Law: Among other things, change the cap on charter schools to allow six more to open each year.

The third bill is especially instructive when compared to titles of other bills that would raise or eliminate the cap on charter schools: Raise Cap on Charter Schools, Eliminate the Cap on Charter Schools, Remove Cap on the Number of Charter Schools and Increase Cap on Charter Schools.

Similar, but still more direct: Allow Charter Schools in 100 Counties.

* Charlotte Observer editorialist Taylor Batten on legislative redistricting: "The referees are the very players whose future is at stake."

* Bowhunters excited to sling bows and arrows on Sunday, but not everyone is keen about allowing rifle hunting on the Sabbath. 

* Observers say Gov. Beverly Perdue is off to a strong start, energetic, centrist with "almost a Schwarzenegger-style self confidence." 

* Bill would require contractors eligible for federal stimulus money in North Caorlina to verify their employees' immigration status.