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Welcome to Crossover Week on Jones Street. Think the action’s been fast so far? Well, hold onto our elephant ears, this week lawmakers will be shoveling as many bills as possible through committee and out to their floors for a vote to meet a Thursday deadline dubbed crossover.

The House and Senate rules say that bills that don’t raise or spend money or propose amendments to the state constitution must pass either the House or Senate by Thursday to be considered during the session. Of course, rules are made to be circumvented, so there are many ways to keep legislation alive. Dome’s favorite: Strip a bill that has already crossed over of its language and insert your bill of choice.

***Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo. Read more about the issues hanging in the balance this week at the legislature. And send news and tips to dome@newsobserver.com.***

Lobbyists will once again be able to give freely to lawmakers and not disclose it under a bill filed this week by Rep. Robert Brawley, R-Iredell.

The legislation, HB 640, relaxes many of the ethics requirements passed in the wake of the Jim Black scandal. Black, who was Speaker of the House from 1999 until 2006, served time in prison for accepting illegal campaign contributions.

Brawley, who is chairman of the House Finance Committee, said he didn't think a ban on gifts from lobbyists was needed.

"I see people with integrity and honesty around here," he said Wednesday. "Jim Black was convicted of laws that were already on the books.

"I have faith in the majority of people being honest. Yes, I recognize that there are rotten apples, but I don't pass laws to treat everybody like a rotten apple. And that's what I think those ethics rules do."

North Carolina's lobbying group for the politically influential oil-and-gas industry is getting a new executive director for the first time in nearly four decades. The leadership change at the N.C. Petroleum Council comes at a time that state lawmakers are debating fracking, the most contentious energy policy in at least a half-century.

David McGowan, 33, a lobbyist for the N.C. Association of Realtors, will replace Bill Weatherspoon, who retired last month after 39 years on the job. Weatherspoon turns 70 on Tuesday. The Petroleum Council, a one-man shop that hires contract lobbyists as needed, is the state office of the American Petroleum Institute, the nation's voice of big oil and natural gas. "I'll be lobbyist, stamp-licker, envelope deliverer -- all of the above," said McGowan, who leaves the realtors' group Friday and starts with the state petroleum organization on Monday.

ANOTHER GAMBLING BUST WITH N.C. TIES: On the same day Florida prosecutors busted a gambling operation that snared a company with major North Carolina political ties, an Ohio prosecutor leveled a new indictment against another sweepstakes company with Tar Heel ties.

The March 13 superseding indictment updated charges filed in May against VS2 Worldwide Communications, a company that operated illegal Internet sweepstakes gaming software, according to local news reports. The company's owners, Phillip Cornick of New Jersey and Richard Upchurch of Ramseur, face charges in Ohio of money laundering and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

The two men and their wives contributed more than $45,000 to North Carolina political candidates -- including Gov. Pat McCrory -- with more than half coming after their initial May indictments.

HAGAN ONE OF 11 SENATE DEMOCRATS NOT TO ENDORSE GAY MARRIAGE: North Carolina's Kay Hagan remains opposed to gay marriage, even though three prominent Democrats colleagues recently shifted their stances. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday (California's Proposition 8) and Wednesday (the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA) about same-sex marriage.

**More on the VS2's campaign contributions and Hagan's stance on gay marriage below in today's Dome Morning Memo. Sends news and tips to dome@newsobserver.com. Thanks for reading.***

The N.C. Republican Party has sent out invitations for a private "Governor's Business Roundtable" Wednesday evening featuring Gov. Pat McCrory and state GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, writes the Insider's Patrick Gannon. An email advertising the roundtable and reception says the "future of North Carolina" will be discussed at the event, which will be held at the GOP headquarters on Hillsborough Street.

According to the invite, a "Roundtable Host" pays $5,000 to get two people in, plus a photo opportunity and an annual membership on the Chairman's Advisory Board. For $2,500, an attendee gets a ticket and an annual membership on the Capitol Leadership Council. Two people can get into the reception, but not the roundtable, for $1,000. Checks should be made out to the N.C. Republican Party.

GOV. PAY RAISE: The salary hikes Gov. Pay McCrory gave to his cabinet are stricking a chord. From N&O columnist Barry Saunders: If you saw our new governor live or on television banging away on a drum set with a band at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre last week, you already know Ringo has nothing to worry about.

For further evidence that the governor is tone deaf, all you had to do was read the newspaper the next day and see that Gov. Pat, henceforth known as Gov. Pay Raise, McCrory bestowed sizable raises on the people closest to him while sprinkling a pittance upon those outside his inner circle – you know, the ones who do the actual work.

You are reading the Dome Morning Memo, an analysis of the day's political headlines. Read much more below. Thanks.

AHEAD THIS WEEK: The UNC system committee considering a new five-year plan meets Monday. The NAACP holds is own legislative briefing -- sure to be much different from the one Republicans will hold -- Tuesday to talk about poverty and economic justice.

As the legislative session approaches, interest groups are gearing up for a fight. A divided auto insurance industry will try again next year to change a unique regulatory system in North Carolina, which enjoys some of the lowest rates in the country. Read more here.

More political headlines below:

-- A former top Republican lawmaker faces new federal charges, including tax evasion, in connection with an alleged scheme to launder money from a government loan program to enrich himself and close associates.

--Advocates for injured workers say the state needs a safety net to catch vulnerable workers. They want state leaders to create a fund to pay for lost wages and medical bills quickly so these workers aren’t left destitute while their employers try to pay the claim.

The executive director of the N.C. Republican Party is resigning at the end of the year to join his wife in a new lobbying firm that opened earlier this year in Raleigh.

Scott Laster, 45, served as the party's day-to-day manager for a year moving from the House GOP caucus where he coordinated politics after the party took power at the legislature for the first time in more than a century. 

He is joining Southern Strategy Group, a lobbying firm that opened in July. His wife, Kristen Laster, is the managing partner in Raleigh.

A month after his election, Gov.-elect Pat McCrory remains employed at a law firm that lobbies state government even as he establishes his administration and controls a $660,000 pot of taxpayer money.

His dual role creates a potential conflict that makes government watchdogs uncomfortable. Another ethical move McCrory should consider, they suggest, is putting his assets in a blind trust. Read full story here.

More political headlines:

--Legislators seeking to eliminate $2.4 billion the state of North Carolina owes the federal government to help pay jobless benefits are prepared to unveil a proposal they also say would put the state unemployment insurance program on firmer financial footing.

The two major-party candidates for governor both stress close connections between education and business but approach the question of improving education from different angles. Democrat Walter Dalton would extend already established paths, while Republican Pat McCrory’s education proposals have the potential to remake the state’s public education system from kindergarten through college.

Read about education in the governor's race, the third installment in a series, and see a graphic of how the plans stack up.

More political headlines:

--On Tuesday, it will be four weeks before the Nov. 6 elections – let the countdown begin. We have had our first debates, more ads than you can shake a stick at, and more than a few motorcades. Read Rob Christensen's tutorial on what to expect in the closing month.