Two of the four foundations who bankrolled a governor's conference in Cary earlier this week said they did not request that the public and press be kept out.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt's eponymous institute at UNC Chapel Hill organized the session on Sunday and Monday for governors from across the country to discuss education initiatives. All of the events, except for a Sunday speech by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, were kept private, even though they involved the governors of 22 states — 16 Democrats and six Republicans. Institute spokeswoman April White said Monday that the privacy was to encourage candor but also a requirement of the groups funding the sessions, which were held at the Umstead luxury hotel in Cary.

Officials at two of the four foundations that contributed, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the State Farm Companies Foundation, said they imposed no such requirement or request. Dome is attempting to get comments from the two other foundations involved, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations.

UPDATE: White said today she misspoke Monday and that the closed sessions were a decision of officials at the Hunt Institute, who stated those conditions when applying for the funding. Also, an earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the institute's location, which is at UNC Chapel Hill.

Former Gov. Mike Easley’s reputation is in tatters.

A recent poll shows him the least popular of the five living past or current governors. By far, North Carolinians have the lowest opinion of Easley, who left office in January, reports Rob Christensen.

A poll by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm in Raleigh, asked which governor they had the lowest opinion of. Easley (2001-2009) was cited by 45 percent, current Gov. Beverly Perdue by 26 percent, former Gov. Jim Holshouser (1973-77) 13 percent, former Gov. Jim Hunt (1977-1985, 1993-2001) 10 percent and former Gov. Jim Martin (1985-1993) 7 percent.

Easley’s numbers are so poor because he has been the subject of critical news reports about the hiring of his wife at N.C. State University, his acceptance of free cars, and a favorable land deal on coastal property.

Voters remember Hunt most fondly, perhaps because he was governor for such a long stretch of people’s lives.

People had the highest opinion of Hunt (41 percent), then Martin (21 percent), Easley (14 percent) Perdue (14 percent) and Holshouser (10 percent).

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The town of Cary had almost as many governors as tidy subdivisions on Sunday and Monday.

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt and his eponymous institute at N.C. State played host to 22 governors for a private summit at the upscale Umstead Luxury Hotel & Spa. The group's goal was to brainstorm on ways to maximize student achievement in the course of allocating some of the $100 billion in federal recovery money earmarked for education. Speakers included U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. 

The forum, with the exception of Duncan's speech, was closed to the press and public. Hunt Institute spokeswoman April White said the invitation-only requirement was to encourage candor and was a requirement of the event's funders: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, State Farm Companies Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

The governors, 16 Democrats and six Republicans, hailed from as far as Kansas and Oklahoma and as close as West Virginia and Kentucky and included North Carolina's Gov. Beverly Perdue.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be in Cary this weekend for what his office is calling a "major policy speech" focusing on international standards for school achievement.

Duncan will be offering the keynote address Sunday night at the Governors Education Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, Lynn Bonner reports.

Duncan's speech will be the second in a series of four leading up to the opening of competition for $5 billion from the "Race to the Top"  fund — money Duncan will dole out to states to encourage school improvements.

The fund is part of the stimulus money Congress approved earlier this year.

Ginger Brame had forgotten she was in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The teddy bear maker, then known as Ginger Thomas, received the state honor after working as a summer intern for the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences during Gov. Jim Hunt's second term.

"When the internships ended that year, we were all invited to the Governor's Mansion for a cookout or picnic as well as I can remember," she wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

She recently stumbled across the certificate in her attic and almost threw it out, not knowing what it signified.

"Looking at your list of notables, I think I'll hang onto my certificate a little longer, just in case I run into one of the celebrity members," she said. "Then I can honestly say we have something in common as members of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine."

In recent years, the Order has been awarded to retiring state employees with more than 30 years of experience, not necessarily to interns.

Gary Pearce says that the Order of the Long Leaf Pine has always been overrated.

The longtime Democratic consultant, who worked for Gov. Jim Hunt, says on his Talking About Politics blog that he feels bad when he reads that the order is the "highest civilian honor" given by the governor.

I don't know about more recently, but when I was Governor Hunt’s press secretary (1977-1984), we pretty much gave the things to anybody who asked. As long as there was no indictment pending.

We got a lot of requests. There were no criteria, no review process. Just ask and ye shall receive.

Some people apparently framed theirs.

It was an easy — and inexpensive — way to make folks feel good. How often do you get that from government these days?

He also joked that former state Supreme Court Justice Burley Mitchell's dog had to have been a "good dog" to get the award.

Franklin Freeman thinks two things led to the increase in the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

The longtime adviser to former Gov. Mike Easley said that they put an application for the award on their Web site and publicized that it was open to retiring state and local government workers.

Between January of 2001 and December of 2008, 26,000 state workers and 6,000 city and county employees retired, according to figures from the state retirement system. Many were nominated by their bosses for the order over the Internet.

"When we put the application form on the Web, it made it much more accessible," Freeman said.

Easley gave out 4,034 awards during his two terms in office, about one and a half times as many as his predecessor. Former Gov. Jim Hunt had given roughly 2,730 in his most recent two terms. 

Freeman, who gave out the award a number of times on Easley's behalf and received it himself, said it comes with a certificate and the right to give the state toast.

"Other than that, it's just the honor associated with the award, and that to some degree perhaps is in the eye of the beholder," he said. 

* Former Gov. Jim Hunt to be featured speaker at 2009 international biotechnology convention in Atlanta, to address science education in states.

* Former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger moves to Germany for the summer; Angela Merkel to be mocked shortly.

* Bill drafting director Gerry Cohen outlines the rules behind the upcoming crossover week. Get ready for a hectic week everybody.

* Media consultant J. Mills Holloway, who is running for former Sen. Vernon Malone's seat, has a campaign manager: Marjorie Fields Harris. 

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt told Congress today that schools across the country have to develop similar standards for education subjects such as algebra, science and reading. 

But Hunt doesn't want the federal government to do the job unless all else fails. Instead, he is pushing a states-run effort to develop standards, Barb Barrett reports.

"The standards are all over the place," Hunt testified this morning to a House education committee. "We need to have a set of common standards for the country for all of our schools. … They need to be fewer, clearer and higher."

The National Governors Association and several education groups are working to develop higher standards for high school graduates.

Hunt, who led North Carolina for 16 years, is now chairman of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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* McGuireWoods makes it official: Former Gov. Mike Easley and two former aides, Franklin Freeman and Ruffin Poole, have joined the firm.

* Former Govs. Jim Hunt and Jim Martin, meantime, have been named to the state advisory board of the N.C. Heroes Fund, which supports veterans.

* Attorney General Roy Cooper, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and other dignitaries to speak at opening of new domestic violence center in Raleigh Friday.

* Another national liberal blogger speculates on the deeper meaning of Sen. Richard Burr's 2010 re-election campaign.