The Mary Easley job and its ensuing fallout is following former N.C. State University Chancellor James Oblinger across the country.

Oblinger resigned his post amid shifting stories about the severance package given to former provost Larry Nielsen. Both Oblinger and Nielsen are key figures in unravelling how Mary Easley, wife of former Gov. Mike Easley, got a $170,000 job at the university.

Oblinger is one of five finalists for the job of president of New Mexico State University. Another finalist is former University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman, who admitted to arranging admissions to the university for under-qualified family members of politicians and their donors, according to a report in the Round Up, a student newspaper at at New Mexico State.

At least one NMSU faculty member seems less than optimistic about the announcement of Herman and Oblinger.

"I think it is completely ridiculous that the search committee would even entertain the thought of recommending [Herman and Oblinger]," said Kevin McNelis, associate professor of accounting. "I am disgusted the search committee would even think of such candidates."

Administrators who selected the finalists defended the picks to Las Cruces Sun-News.

Del Archuleta, chairman of the committee, said the panel knew of the allegations against the two, and did its due diligence in considering the candidates.

"Even with the situation, the committee felt these two should be considered," Archuleta said. "Why? Because they are outstanding. All five of the candidates are really stellar."

An ad airing on local television stations asks viewers to vote on whether state Democrats are the most corrupt.

The 30-second ad by the conservative Wake Up America, highlights notable Democrats who have gone to prison as well as Mary Easley's job at N.C. State University as well as a recent tax increase approved by Democrats in the House and Senate.

The ad encourages viewers to go to the organization's Web site to vote on whether our state is more corrupt than New Jersey, Illinois or New York. Wake Up America aims to be the conservative answer to MoveOn.org and proclaims that one if its missions is to rescue "America from radical socialism."

Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" urges readers to avoid the passive voice — the active voice is more direct and vigorous.

The classic writing manual didn't mention that the passive voice creates mystery, Joseph Neff reports.

An example of the passive voice is the following sentence: Former Gov. Mike Easley and his wife were given a $137,470 discount on their Cannonsgate lot on Bogue Sound.

R.A. North Development, the company that developed Cannonsgate, gave the discount. But who was the person behind it? The passive voice hides the identity.

The passive voice shows up in other Cannonsgate matters.

Ace Smith, Easley's spokesman, the former governor "was assured he received the same offer as everyone else."

Who assured Easley?

Smith declined to say.

Richard Stanley, the closing attorney, told Dome that he was instructed to put the 25 percent seller's discount into the closing documents.

Who instructed Stanley to do so?

Stanley declined to say.

Stanley wrote a letter about the deal to the Carteret County News Times.

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When the UNC Board of Governors was vetting the details of Mary Easley's new job and big raise at N.C. State last year, UNC system President Erskine Bowles had conversations with both the first lady and her husband.

Bowles, who met Wednesday with News & Observer editors and reporters, said he had been skeptical of the new job, which has since become entangled in a federal investigation into Mike Easley, the former governor, reports Steve Riley. Bowles said he told James Oblinger, then the N.C. State chancellor, that he would have to "justify every single dollar or we would not approve it."

At one point during the process, Bowles said that Oblinger had given up trying to persuade Bowles and the board to approve the deal. But the chancellor later made another run at it, only to have Mrs. Easley balk at one of Bowles' conditions: That all the documents supporting the $170,000 salary be made public.

"I called her and told her that," Bowles said. "She said she'd get back to me." She did, and the board approved the deal with Bowles' blessing.

Bowles said he had also talked to the former governor at the time. "I told Governor Easley the same thing I just told you: That we were going to treat Mary Easley the same way we would treat everybody else."

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UNC President Erskine Bowles turns 65 next August, but he was vague about exactly when he would step down. UNC presidents have traditionally retired at 65.

Bowles says he's not focused on retirement. Not that he's in love with the job right now, he told editors, reporters and editorial writers today at The News & Observer, Jane Stancill reports.

"All things being equal, I want to go home. God knows I love Chapel Hill, but living in that great big museum by myself, eating Chick-Fil-A twice a day, that is my life."

But, he said, there are big issues to contend with, including the fallout from Mary Easley's hiring at N.C. State University and the elimination of costly layers of campus middle managers. He also says he'll demand more accountability from the UNC campuses on their performance of graduating and preparing students.

"We have some issues we need to deal with and I think the buck stops with me," he said.

State Auditor Beth Wood today released a January audit that said the salary N.C. State University paid to then-First Lady Mary Easley was excessive and should have been reduced by nearly $90,000.

But Wood, in a follow-up "interim report" said the January audit was incomplete and that more investigation was needed, reports Dan Kane. She noted that NCSU had provided additional information to justify the $170,000 salary. The January audit recommended that the salary be reduced to $79,000 and that Easley's five-year contract should be replaced by a two-year contract.

Mary Easley's salary, and her hiring at NCSU, have become part of wide-ranging state and federal investigations into perks given to former Gov. Mike Easley and his family.

The state Highway Patrol said today that it has turned over to federal authorities a computer that once contained records regarding then Gov. Mike Easley's air travels that are now missing.

The computer had been assigned to Diane Bumgardner, a patrol secretary who works for the governor's security detail, Dan Kane reports.

On Friday, the patrol released an internal report of the missing records in which Bumgardner said the captain who oversaw the detail, Alan Melvin, had told her to download three years of flight records to a computer disk, give it to him and then delete the files from her computer.

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State Auditor Beth Wood testified today before the federal grand jury investigating former Gov. Mike Easley.

Most of the questions revolved around an unreleased audit reviewing the $170,000 salary paid to Mary Easley at N.C. State University before she was fired in June, according to Dennis Patterson, a spokesman for Wood.

Wood, a Democrat, had acknowledged in a previous interview that she had told her staff that one reason for not releasing the salary audit was that state Sen. Tony Rand, a powerful Democrat from Fayetteville and a long-time Easley supporter, would poke holes in it.

Rand had represented Mary Easley when Wood's predecessor, Les Merritt, audited her European travels paid by tax dollars. Merritt found that some expenses were questionable.

Wood was worried whether the salary audit would stand up to close scrutiny, Patterson said.

"She told them Tony Rand is a good lawyer, and if he punched holes in the travel audit, he'd rip up this one," Patterson said.

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State auditors could be making another round of appearances at the federal courthouse connected to the ongoing investigation of former Gov. Mike Easley as a federal grand jury meets in Raleigh this week.

A new federal subpoena asks for more information and possible appearances from staff, including current Democratic State Auditor Beth Wood, J. Andrew Curliss reports.

Among the details federal authorities seek from Wood, who took office in January, is whether she has been in any business ventures or took any kind of money or payments from the Easleys or several people connected to them.

Wood said through a spokesman that she has not been in any business ventures. She is reviewing campaign reports, but does not believe she got money personally or for her campaigns, either.

"She had asked both Easleys for help with her campaign just before and just after the primary, but to her knowledge got none other than the obligatory vocal support for the ticket," said spokesman Dennis Patterson.

Wood's office has not released an audit that reviewed the $170,000 salary paid to Mary Easley at N.C. State before she was fired in June.

Wood acknowledged in a previous interview that she had told her staff that one reason for not releasing the salary audit was that state Sen. Tony Rand, an influential Democrat from Fayetteville, would poke holes in it.

She said she did not speak with Rand about it, however, but was anticipating a response. Rand had represented Mary Easley when Wood's predecessor, Republican Les Merritt, audited her European travels and determined some expenses were questionable.

Investigators in the new subpoenas also asked for information about Mary Easley's trips to France, Estonia and Russia in 2007 and 2008. And they seek information about any contacts between Wood and elected officials.

Several people from the auditors office appeared at the grand jury in previous months.