Secretary of Cultural Resources Linda Carlisle has asked State Auditor Beth Wood to weigh in on a squabble over the N.C. Pottery Center in Seagrove.

It's the latest installment in the pottery feud.

Carlisle wrote Wood last month about ongoing complaints from potters Don Hudson and Phil Morgan.

"They allege that the Department has conspired with the North Carolina Pottery Center to take over the Seagrove Pottery Festival," Carlisle wrote. "They also allege that the Department has attempted to take over the North Carolina Pottery Center in an effort to put rival potters in the area out of business."

Carlisle asked Wood to examine the situation as a neutral third party. 

Hudson forwarded to the N&O an email from Carlisle to potters and others affiliated with the craft, explaining that she was dropping plans to bring the center under the administration of the department. She also wrote that the department was responding to requests for "numerous documents, correspondence, grant applications and reports."

Gov. Beverly Perdue's Cabinet includes only one first.

The state's first female governor has appointed the state's first female secretary of the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Linda Wheeler Hayes.

As noted previously, many of the remaining glass ceilings for women in North Carolina involve law enforcement positions such as Attorney General, Correction Secretary or Crime Control Secretary.

(In addition, there has never been a female secretary of Environment and Natural Resources or Transportation.)

Perdue's Cabinet includes one other woman — Cultural Resources Secretary Linda Carlisle — but that's not news. Six of the seven secretaries who have served since that department was created in 1971 have been women.

Meantime, the Cabinet includes three black men: Correction Secretary Al Keller, Revenue Secretary Kenneth Lay and Crime Control Secretary Reuben Young.

There have been previous black secretaries of all three departments, especially Crime Control and Correction, as well as the departments of Administration and Environment and Natural Resources.

In all, Perdue has essentially tied former Gov. Mike Easley's 2001 Cabinet, which also had only five white male appointees and was described as "perhaps the most diverse" in North Carolina history.

Here at Dome we've been working furiously to get to know Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's 10 cabinet secretaries. And while we aren't experts yet, we've found a few facts that we find intriguing. Test your knowledge with our quiz.

The secretaries are: Lanier Cansler (HHS), Linda Carlisle (Cultural Resources), Britt Cobb (Administration), Gene Conti (DOT), Keith Crisco (Commerce), Dee Freeman (DENR), Linda Wheeler Hayes (Juvenile Justice) Al Keller (Correction), Kenneth Lay (Revenue) and Reuben Young (Crime Control).

— Which secretary holds a Ph.D. in anthropology?

— The new cabinet job is the first government post (local, state, federal) for this secretary.

— Only one of Perdue's new cabinet secretaries was a Tar Heel of the Week in The News & Observer. Which secretary was featured in the 2002 story?

— This secretary is the only member of the cabinet to have run for statewide office.

— The 4-H honored this secretary in 2000 for outstanding alumni work.

— This secretary was formerly an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas.

— Which secretary, known for fundraising prowess, helped the Girl Scouts' Tarheel Triad Council raise $7 million for a new campus?

— This cabinet secretary was a White House Fellow from 1970 to 1971.

— A manager of four North Carolina cities, this secretary is the Brevard City Manager Emeritus.

— In a former job, this secretary presided over 800 criminal trials.

Answers after the jump.

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Linda Carlisle says diversity will strengthen the new administration.

The retired Greensboro businesswoman, who was added Monday to Gov.-elect  Beverly Perdue's transition team, said that having male and female staffers with diverse ethnic backgrounds will improve decision-making.

"We reach better decisions and get better results when we have all levels of diversity," she told Dome. "It will make whatever is done better, stronger and more effective."

As a vice president at a major North Carolina bank in the 1970s, Carlisle remembers when few women or minorities held positions of power. More recently, she was the only woman on the original board of the state lottery.

A longtime resident of the Triad, she said geographic diversity is also important for the newly elected governor.

"It's always difficult to ensure that those outside of (Raleigh) have a sense that they're being heard," she said. 

Carlisle first met Perdue when she was lieutenant governor and worked as a fundraiser and volunteer for her gubernatorial campaign. She was appointed to the lottery commission and the UNC-Greensboro board of trustees by Gov. Mike Easley.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue named a group of women and African-Americans to her transition leadership after being stung by criticism that her first appointments lacked diversity.

She added:

Howard Lee, chair of the state school board and former senator

Valeria Lee, vice chair of the Rural Economic Development Center and past president of the Golden Leaf Foundation

Linda Carlisle, retired founding president of Copier Consultants and former Bank of America vice president

Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, chair of the State Board of Community Colleges and a vice president at Progress Energy

Howard Lee, Valeria Lee (who is not related) and Pinnix-Ragland are black.

The new appointments followed criticism last week from Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, that Perdue's first three appointments were of politically-connected white men. She initially named three transition leaders: Zach Ambrose, Perdue's campaign manager and former chief of staff in the lieutenant governor's office; Don Hobart, her current chief of staff, and Norris Tolson, former secretary of revenue and former secretary of transportation.