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PERSONNEL BILL COMING: Personnel information on salaries, disciplinary actions and hiring decisions for public employees could be more available to taxpayers under legislation a Republican leader says he will seek to introduce in the coming session.

Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger said he wants to draft legislation that would make public salary and employment histories, disciplinary actions such as suspensions or firings, and hiring information about successful job applicants. He said making that information public shows that government is open to the taxpayers who pay the bills, and may prevent cases in which employees who have behaved badly can move quietly from one agency to another. (N&O)

CAN GREEN SAVE US? On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden visited Cree, a symbol for the administration about the potential for green energy jobs. The question for North Carolina, which has lost more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs just since the recession began, is whether the clean-energy sector will ever create enough manufacturing jobs to make a serious dent in those that vanished in the textile and furniture industries. (N&O)

BASNIGHT RIGHT: Asked to referee a fight between a powerful coastal senator and an environmental group, the state Department of Transportation has sided with the senator.

Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight will be holding an oyster roast fundraiser at the state fairgrounds tonight with a strict dress code: blue jeans required.

Basnight holds a similar event in his district in Wanchese every other December that is free and open to the public. Tonight's shindig, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, is a fundraiser for Basnight's campaign, which effectively means for Senate Democrats. Basnight typically fills up a large campaign account and then parcels it out to members of his caucus who need help.

Admission levels range from a $100 ticket to a $4,000 sponsor. Basnight's campaign is expecting around 400 guests.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt is the host, and the menu features Hyde County oysters and barbecue ribs.

The N.C. Association of Educators, an organization of mostly teachers, released its grades for legislators today.

The report card notes how legislators voted on bills NCAE wanted, and gives a final grade, Lynn Bonner reports.

The grades don't necessarily have much to do with the votes, though.

For example, Senate leader Marc Basnight voted for all the bills the NCAE wanted, as did budget writers Linda Garrou, and Charlie Dannelly. Yet, those senators, all Democrats, got "C-minuses." Identical voting records earned other senators "As", or even an "A-plus."

A written explanation of the grades says they're not based just on votes. Legislators are judged on other factors — whether NCAE considers them accessible, reliable, and if the promote NCAE's positions in committees, for example.

As for the Senate budget writers' grades, perhaps that shouting match they had last year with NCAE lobbyists didn't help at report card time.

Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, got a final grade of "incomplete." (Stevens noted in a message to Dome that he was out with knee surgery). Sen. Debbie Clary, a Republican, voted for three of the six and got an "F."

Guess we all knew teachers just like some kids more than others.

UPDATE: A previous version of this post misstated Stevens' grade. Dome regrets the error.

Responding to complaints from state Sen. Marc Basnight about bureaucratic obstacles to a replacement for the deteriorating N.C. 12 bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County, an environmental group says Basnight himself is to blame for delaying the project.

Basnight urged President Barack Obama in a Feb. 24 letter to overrule federal officials he said were stalling a bridge replacement because they feared lawsuits from "out-of-state environmental groups," Bruce Siceloff reports.

Basnight, the state Senate leader, represents Dare County.

The Virginia-based Southern Environmental Law Center responded with a March 1 letter to Obama, advocating a bridge alternative that Basnight opposes.

"It was Senator Basnight’s intervention in 2003 that halted the process and prevented the construction of the Pamlico Sound alternative," wrote Derb S. Carter Jr. and Julia F. Youngman, based in the environmental group’s Chapel Hill office.

UPDATE: Basnight's spokesman, Schorr Johnson, scoffed at the conservation group's arguments.

"Any scenario in which Senator Basnight was trying to delay a replacement bridge is ridiculous," Johnson said. "The state didn't have the money for the long bridge in 2003 and they don't have it now."  

The leaders of the state House and Senate have posted links to make it easier to see who's getting appointed.

House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate Leader Marc Basnight are responsible for appointing 1,500 seats on 200 state boards and commissions that have regulatory and licensing functions.

The information is public, but can be difficult to find online, the leaders note in a news release. Basnight and Hackney have created Web pages that show appointments by date or provide a way to search. 

"The thousands of people who sit on these government boards volunteer to help make North Carolina better," Hackney said. "They are also an extension of our government and though my appointments have always been done publicly and openly, this new link will make it even easier to see who helps advise us and in some cases make policy on the state’s behalf."

"Those who are serving our state on these many boards deserve our appreciation and the people they serve can now have easier access to their names," Basnight said.

The House appointments page can be found here and the Senate page is here.

Senate leader Marc Basnight implored President Barack Obama this week to sweep aside legal and environmental challenges and allow North Carolina to proceed with construction on a replacement for the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet in Dare County.

Bruce Siceloff reports on his Crosstown Traffic blog that in a letter dated Wednesday and released today, Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, paints a scary picture:

Imagine for a moment a busload of school children traveling across the bridge. When the bus reaches the apex of the bridge's 3.3-mile span, the road collapses, sending the bus and all of the children into the water below. ...

[W]e continue to face unnecessary delays from a government that is more worried about the litigious threats of out-of-state environmental groups than about the public safety and economic well-being of the millions of motorists who cross the bridge every year.

I plead with you to right this wrong that has wasted millions of dollars and infinite red tape over the years - at the hands of federal bureaucrats and at the risk of the safey of millions of people.

OH YES HE IS: Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight filed for reelection, despite the semiannual speculation that he wouldn't. (Washington Daily News)

COBLE FAINTS: U.S. Rep. Howard Coble fainted during a speech in High Point Thursday and was hospitalized. (N&O)

LOVE IS IN THE AIR, OR WIRES: Love emails between two South Carolina Republicans leak out. (Charlotte O)

The state’s two highest-ranking legislative leaders this morning ordered a newly-formed panel to examine ways to reform the state Alcoholic Beverage Control system, including the possibility of privatization.

The formation of the committee marked the legislature’s clearest step so far toward overhauling the complex system by which liquor is sold in the state. The move also emphasized the seriousness with which lawmakers are considering turning over the booze business to private retailers.

The quest for reform follows embarrassing revelations about expensive, liquor company-funded meals for the local ABC board chair and several staff members in Mecklenburg County and the disclosure of plump salaries paid to top staffers in coastal New Hanover County. Parks Helms resigned as Mecklenburg ABC board chair last month, as did Calvin McDougal, the CEO. New Hanover's entire board resigned, and the top admiinstrator's salary was cut.

“We already know that we need more accountability and ethics reform in the ABC system,” said Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight in a prepared statement. “What we need to explore further is what is working now and what we can improve.”

Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney announced that the committee will be co-chaired by state Rep. Ray Warren, who represents portions of Alexander and Caldwell counties, and state Sen. Don Vaughan, of Guilford County. (Click the document below to see a full list.)

Top state officials, including Gov. Bev Perdue, have called for tighter control over the state liquor system, including setting stringent ethics and gift policies and more oversight of the 163 local ABC boards across the state, which operate the liquor stores. The state ABC Commission handles liquor law violation cases and operates the warehouse through which liquor stores buy their bottles, but the commission has virtually no authority over operation of the stores.

The new committee is expected to make recommendations to the General Assembly before the start of the legislative session in May. The group is expected to examine eight broad areas, including: the need for consistency across the state in ABC board rules, structures and ethical standards, and the amount of distribution of revenues from the ABC system. It also will examine the possibility of privatization and its potential effects and cost savings.

June Atkinson, the state superintendent of public instruction, told Senate leader Marc Basnight that students will get more than one shot of U.S. history while they're in high school.

Responding to a letter from Basnight objecting to a proposal to have the 11th grade survey course start with the post-Reconstruction years, Atkinson said students would study early U.S. history in 10th grade, Lynn Bonner reports.

The Civics and Economics course proposed for 10th graders includes study of the U.S. Constitution and an analysis of the foundation of democratic government in the United States.

"I agree 100 percent with you that no student should graduate without a thorough understanding and appreciation of the Founding Fathers' work, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, etc," Atkinson wrote. "We are also committed to honoring state statutes that require these pieces of U.S. history to be taught at the high school level."

Senate leader and history buff Marc Basnight opposes a proposal to limit the big U.S. history course high schoolers take to the post-Reconstruction years.

School boards, history teachers and others have criticized the proposed curriculum, which would push much of early U.S. history to the elementary and middle school years, Lynn Bonner reports.

Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, wants more U.S. history taught in high school, not less.

"We should be doubling, maybe even tripling, our efforts and enhancing the coursework that is now taught in high school," Basnight said in a letter to State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison and State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson.

"I am absolutely opposed to any change that would limit the study to the years proposed," Basniight wrote.

Curriculum writers will have more revisions before the State Board of Education approves a plan.