HAIL TO THE CUPCAKES: President Barack Obama held a town hall at a Raleigh high school to build support and rally swing votes on health care reform among the state's Congressional delegation. While in Raleigh, the leader of the free world gave a huge plug to a Raleigh cupcake shop and forgot the name of the House speaker.

THE DEAL'S A LOCK: Last week's budget meltdown left House and Senate Democrats bitterly divided. And that's how they stayed until Wednesday when the budget negotiators unveiled a plan that looked remarkably like the one that died the week before. By week's end they had a handshake agreement to raise sales taxes and income taxes on higher wage earners. A handful of Democrats, enough to scuttle the deal, were grumbling about the "sin" taxes and the word was Gov. Beverly Perdue still wasn't thrilled with the tax plan. What could go wrong?

BEAM HIM UP: Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat from Ceti Alpha 5, er, Greensboro, was in the news this week. First he breathlessly announced in a news conference that his bill to legalize video poker has supporters. Then his bill to create a high-tech center called the "Star Fleet Academy" on N.C. A&T State University's campus was the subject of a parody video that included a picture of Perdue after a Borg assimilation. Jones is running on impulse power and his shields are at 25 percent. Scotty, you've got to give him more power!

IN OTHER NEWS: Former house member Michael Decker got his prison sentence reduced. U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre won't run for Senate. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr won't vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

At least four potential picks for Supreme Court have Tar Heel ties.

Although President Obama has not compiled a short list for the replacement for retiring Justice David Souter, that hasn't stopped observers from speculating.

Here are four who have some ties to North Carolina: 

* Patricia Timmons-Goodson. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's and law degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. Qualification: Justice on the N.C. Supreme Court since 2006, former prosecutor and Distirct Court judge. Mentioned by: ScotusBlog.

* Teresa Wynn Roseborough. N.C. Ties: Graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill law school in 1986, edited the N.C. Law Review. Qualification: Former deputy assistant attorney general under President Clinton. Mentioned by: Huffington Post

* Johnnie B. Rawlinson. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's at N.C. A&T State University. Qualification: Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit since 2000. Mentioned by: Associated Press.

* Virginia Seitz. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's degree from Duke University. Qualification: Has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mentioned by: Legal Times. 

Here are the top five state colleges for earmark requests:

N.C. State University: 23 requests, seven Congressmen, $58.9 million, to study nanotechnology, pig waste, sweet potatoes, aquaculture, biotechnology and textiles, among other things.

N.C. A&T State University: 10 requests, four Congressmen, $23.8 million, to study using cattails for biofuel, retrain workers, research microelectronics and run a math literacy program, among other things.

East Carolina University: Nine requests, two Congressmen, $18.5 million, to study obesity and diabetes, help returning military personnel, research biofuels, pig waste and coastal development, among other things.

UNC-Chapel Hill: Eight requests, five Congressmen, $18 million, to study solar power, research public health trends, develop a technology curriculum, run a cancer center and start a virtual warfare center.

Wake Forest University: Two requests, one Congressman, $15 million, to study regenerative medicine.

In all, 31 colleges requested $184.5 million worth of earmarks through the Congressional delegation this year.

Other requestors included Shaw University, Bennett College for Women, the UNC School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University, Rockingham Community College and Central Piedmont Community College.

A fund for fast-growing colleges could be cut.

Since the late 1990s, the University of North Carolina system has built up a reserve fund for state universities that were growing at a rapid rate.

That included the five historically black colleges, Elizabeth City State University, N.C. A&T, N.C. Central, Fayetteville State and Winston-Salem State. Two others, UNC-Pembroke and Western Carolina, were also helped. 

"All had the capacity to grow at a rate greater then they would naturally," said UNC spokesman Rob Nelson. "The money was appropriated to accommodate the administrative costs of that — to help with infrastructure, administration and financial aid."

In all, Nelson said the fund had provided $30 million for the seven schools.

Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed cutting the annual $1.3 million appropriation in order to help balance next year's budget. 

State Rep. Linda Coleman has been appointed head of state personnel.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue appointed the Knightdale Democrat, who has the strong backing of labor unions, as director of the Office of State Personnel.

Ann Cobb will serve as deputy director.

Coleman, a former Wake County commissioner, has been in the state House since 2005, serving as chair of the state personnel committee.

She previously worked as human resources management director at the state departments of Agriculture and Administration and as personnel director for the Department of Community Colleges.

She has a master's in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and a bachelor's from N.C. A&T State University.

"It is an honor to be selected by Governor-elect Bev Perdue to head the Office of State Personnel," she said. "I will work hard everyday for North Carolina’s state employees."

Cobb has worked in human resources for a private firm and in the Office of State Personnel and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

A state audit has questioned N.C. A&T State University's use of state procurement cards to buy suits for student leaders to wear at homecoming festivities.

The audit, released today by State Auditor Les Merritt, questioned the purchase of $1,672 for the suits, along with two cases of gift and gift card purchases without proper documentation and credit card finance charges of $755. It also found that N.C. A&T violated policy when it made purchases to support travel to the Jena Six Rally last year in Louisiana.

University officials defended some of the purchases, saying the $206 spent for student bus travel to the rally was for an emergency first aid kit. They also said the student government association had the right to charge clothing for special occasions and pageants within its student fee budget, which is reviewed by the student senate.

In a news release, Merritt said: "NC A&T has a good system of internal controls in place. However, there is clearly room for improvement in controlling [procurement card] purchases to prevent opportunities of future abuse."

Barack Obama's Greensboro rally won't start until around noon.

But already hundreds of people are lined up along several blocks downtown. Members of the media and VIPs have begun gathering in front of the historic J. Douglas Galyon Depot.

Spotted at the event: State Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat.

The N.C. A&T marching band is providing a pretty rousing musical soundtrack to the event.

Kay Hagan got a few pet projects in the 2004 budget.

As a Senate Appropriations co-chair for the second year in 2004, the Greensboro Democrat got a few more provisions than in her first go-round to help our her home district.

Here's a quick look:

Millennium Campus: Hagan secured $4 million to convert buildings at a former school for deaf children for a research campus run by N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro. (Section 32.1)

Design Center: The N.C. School of the Arts got $2 million to start the Center for Design Innovation in a Greensboro research park. (Section 32.1)

Tuition Promise: Hagan's provision to give free tuition at state universities to graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics added $780,000 to the budget.

Rape Kits: After getting the reduction of a backlog of untested rape kits labeled a "priority" in 2003, Hagan got $250,000 set aside to test them. (Section 15.2)

Previously: Hagan's pet projects from 2003. 

A state audit released today detailed questionable scholarships that went to relatives of university employees at N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro.

The scholarships apparently came from a fund that was meant to help financially needy students, but went to relatives of university employees who may not have qualified for the awards, Jane Stancill reports.

"Need-based scholarships should have clear guidelines and be awarded equitably based on the needs of students," said State Auditor Les Merritt in a news release today. "University employees should not be allowed to award scholarships to themselves or immediate family members."

The annual financial audit contained 13 findings for N.C. A&T, including inappropriate travel reimbursements worth nearly $5,000. Two questionable trips worth $4,000 were charged to a vice chancellor's discretionary account, the audit found. The audit also found errors in student accounts and nearly $100,000 in costs charged to state funds that should not have been allowed under state rules.

N.C. A&T concurred with the findings and said it had begun to implement better control over the various financial accounts.

The audit comes nine months after another audit disclosed more than $1 million in fraud, mismanagement of federal grants and misuse of money at N.C. A&T. That review followed months of investigation and the dismissal of several employees who were charged with criminal offenses.

Earlier this week, an audit uncovered an inappropriately awarded contract at UNC-Greensboro. Another audit released today showed a continuation of financial problems at Fayetteville State University.

Sen. Kay Hagan is seeking more than $48 million in state spending.

The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate has sponsored one bill and co-sponsored 16 bills seeking appropriations in the upcoming state budget. As a longtime state senator, she is serving an advisory role on the budget in the short session.

Hagan is the primary sponsor of a bill that would give the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering run by UNC-Greensboro and N.C. A&T University $2.9 million in the budget.

Among the larger appropriations bills she is cosponsoring: $12 million for the N.C. Housing Trust Fund, $9.5 million to the UNC system for 4-H camps, and $8.1 million to buy a building for a student services center at N.C. A&T.

She is also asking for $3 million for Boys & Girls Club programs targeting dropouts and teen pregnancy, $3 million for an International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, $2.6 million for promoting the semiannual furniture market in High Point, $2.5 million for minority financial literacy programs, $2 million for arts programs and $1 million for a parental school involvement pilot program.

Among the appropriations under $1 million: Money for a literacy program in Wake County public schools, an electronic health information study commission, Kids Voting programs, a John Coltrane Music Hall in Greensboro, job training for the homeless and former inmates, a male-oriented teen pregnancy prevention program, and housing for recovering substance abusers in Greensboro.