A handful of North Carolina tobacco farmers put on their Sunday best this morning and traveled up to Washington with the N.C. Agribusiness Council to try to change minds in the Senate about FDA oversight.

Pender Sharp, who grows 500 acres near Wilson, N.C., said the group wants to remind senators of the families and communities behind the tobacco industry.

The Senate is debating legislation that would put oversight of tobacco products within the Food and Drug Administration. It is opposed by both Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan — but few others in the Senate.

So far, Sharp said this afternoon, the farmers aren't having much luck changing minds.

"Oh no, we'e not having that kind of impact," he said. "We just want to plant seeds in their minds as they engage in this debate. (We want to) put a face to the bill they’re voting on, and talk about the impacts in the community."

Sharp said the group has met with aides to senators from other Southern states that grow some tobacco, including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia.

Previously: Sharp records robocall for Obama. 

Sen. Kay Hagan has forwarded three names to the White House as potential judicial nominations for the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hagan would not disclose the names this morning in a conference call with reporters, because she hasn't told the other candidates that they weren't among the recommendations, Barb Barrett reports.

President Barack Obama will make official nominations to the Senate.

Hagan, a freshman Democrat, said she is committed to seeing two of the four open seats on court go to North Carolinians. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals covers the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland.

Hagan named a statewide board this spring to help vet candidates and guide her on her recommendations. Hagan said she met with several of the candidates.

North Carolina now has just one judge on the court, which is represented by 15 judgeships.

Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner announced Tuesday that they had sent forward the name of Virginia State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan to the White House.

Update: Former Supreme Court Justice Burley Mitchell, who led Hagan's search efforts, said they interviewed more than 40 candidates.

Second Update: Hagan's office said later that she misspoke and there is no list. 

* U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan signs on as cosponsor of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb's big prison-reform study commission bill.

* Red Oak is asking the legislature to raise the number of barrels a brewery can distribute on its own without a distributor.

* Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton announces creation of the Small Business Assistance Fund to give low-interest loans to small companies.

* A state bill to regulate child beauty pageants gets some love from Jezebel, a nationally known feminist blog.

Freshman Sen. Kay Hagan voted for a bill to expand the health insurance program for children, but not before making a symbolic effort to reduce the size of the cigarette tax hike that pays for it.

The Senate vote Thursday night to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program to 11 million low-income children. The $32.8 billion expansion will be paid for by raising the federal cigarette tax from 39 cents per pack to $1 per pack.

Hagan, along with fellow tobacco-state Democrat Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, offered an amendment to raise the cigarette tax instead to just 76 cents per pack. But after offering the amendment, they withdrew it because it was clear that Senate Democratic leadership wanted the bill.

The measure passed by a 66-32 vote in the Senate in a largely party-line vote. North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr voted against it.

Hagan expressed dismay that the health insurance program was funded entirely with tobacco taxes, but ultimately voted for the measure.

"Less than a month into my service here in the U.S. Senate," Hagan told the Senate, "I'm faced with a situation in which the health of thousands of my state’s children are at odds with a key industry in North Carolina."

"But ultimately," Hagan said, "I had to vote on behalf of the 10 million low-income and disadvantaged children this bill helps."

The measure, which had earlier passed the House, now goes to the White House where President Obama is expected to sign it next week. President Bush had previously vetoed the bill.

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, scored a minor victory today when part of his plan for education benefits for returning military veterans was included in the massive war supplemental package this week.

The majority of House and Senate members wanted the GI bill pitched by Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, that allows vets to get into the most expensive in-state university in their home state, Barb Barrett reports.

Burr, along with Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, had an idea allowing military members to transfer benefits to spouses or children after several years in the service.

That transferability option was preferred by the Pentagon, which said Webb's generous benefits package could encourage troops to leave the military at a critical time.

The war supplemental bill has bounced among the House, Senate and White House in recent weeks as politicians argued about funding for the war and domestic programs.

The deal reached Wednesday night by congressional leaders has been okayed by the White House.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr argues on the Senate floor for his bill on veterans' education benefits to be heard as well as Sen. Jim Webb's.

After a political deal cut late Wednesday, Senate Democrats plan to allow a vote on Sen. Jim Webb's bill to expand college benefits for military veterans.

Webb's bill, which would cost $52 billion over 10 years, would allow veterans to attend the most expensive in-state public university in their home state, Barb Barrett reports.

His bill is co-sponsored by a majority of the Senate and has been endorsed by several veterans' groups.

Sen. Richard Burr is trying to persuade leadership to allow a debate on his and Sen. Lindsey Graham's bill as well. Their proposal, about $38 billion over 10 years, would raise the monthly stipend for veterans.

To address concerns from the Pentagon about troop retention, their bill also allows the full education benefit to be transferred to military members after 12 years of service. It also is authored by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"What we're here today to do is have a choice between something and nothing. I'm not sure that's fair for our veterans," Burr said on the floor. "The politics of this has gotten ugly."

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cribbed a few details today from a Democratic colleague for their version of the GI bill, which helps pay for college for military veterans.

But both men say their version is still superior to the one offered by Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, which is wrapped inside the massive war supplemental package being considered in the Senate, reports Barb Barrett.

The pair, along with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, increased the annual payment for books to $1,000, allowed Guard and Reservists to more easily qualify for benefits and eliminated the $1,200 join-up fee for military members to participate in the program.

All match details of the Webb bill.

But in a news conference today, Burr and Graham said their bill will better help retention in the military. It allows military members to transfer half their college benefits to a spouse or child after six years, and 100 percent of the benefits after 12 years.

“I am not going to sit on the sidelines and under feel-good politics create a program that will hurt America’s ability to retain its force,” Graham said. “Now is not the time to put a benefit on the table that incentivizes people to leave the military.”

Read more after the jump.

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Dave "Mudcat" Saunders will speak at Vance-Aycock.

The political consultant and professional good ol' boy will be the keynote speaker at the annual event, held by the N.C. Democratic Party at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Saunders, co-author of "Foxes in the Henhouse," has long worked on the so-called "Bubba Vote" of rural, NASCAR-loving bluegrass fans.

A native of Roanoke, he currently works as an advisor to John Edwards. He's previously advised Mark Warner's gubernatorial campaign and Jim Webb's Senate campaign, both in Virginia.

First Lady Mary Easley and several candidates for statewide office will also speak at the Democratic Women's Breakfast that morning.

The event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 6.

A Raleigh nonprofit is mounting a national campaign for gay marriage.

Founded in late 2005, Faith in America aims to end the "abuse of religion" to support discrimination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

As part of the 40th anniversary of a Supreme Court case that struck down anti-miscegenation laws, it is running ads in Capitol Hill newspapers of prominent interracial couples, including Sens. Jim Webb, Mel Martinez and Mitch McConnell, who do not support gay marriage.

"These are incredible hypocrites," said Mitchell Gold, president of Faith in America and co-owner of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, a furniture chain based in Taylorsville, according to Roll Call ($).

The nonprofit's executive director is Jimmy Creech, a former Methodist minister who lost his credentials when he performed a gay marriage in Chapel Hill in 1999.