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. 

Beverly Perdue named her legislative lobbyist and director today.

As expected since earlier this month, the governor-elect announced that she would appoint Andy Willis as her senior advisor for governmental affairs. She also named Courtney Crowder as legislative director.

Willis is currently vice president for government relations for the University of North Carolina system and a former fiscal analyst for the state Senate. He has a master's degree in public administration from UNC-Chapel Hill and a bachelor's in political science from N.C. State.

Crowder currently works as a lobbyist for Capstrat and previously worked at the N.C. Department of Insurance and for U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge. He has a master's degree from Duke University and a bachelor's degrees in English literature and French from N.C. Central University.

"Andy and Courtney will bring to our team a wealth of experience and proven ability to get things done," Perdue said in a statement. "They'll play key roles in making our vision to get North Carolina back on track a reality."

Meredith Norris is pursuing a law degree.

The former lobbyist and aide to then-House Speaker Jim Black has enrolled as a law student at N.C. Central University. The university's registrar's office confirmed to Dome on Wednesday that she is a current student.

Norris was sentenced to 75 hours of community service in 2006 after pleading guilty to violating state lobbying laws, a misdemeanor.

Since then, she has worked as a real estate agent.

Norris did not respond Wednesday to an e-mail message from Dome.

Actors Shawn and Marlon Wayans will be visiting North Carolina colleges this weekend on behalf of Barack Obama.

Their mission - to get students registered to vote.

Obama's campaign announced today that the Wayans brothers will be part of a larger effort to get people registered by North Carolina's April 11 deadline.

The actors are scheduled to visit N.C. State, N.C. Central, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, N.C. A&T, UNC-Greensboro, Winston-Salem State and Wake Forest.

Richard Moore has reconciled with the Eagles.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate announced today that he has reached a settlement with the classic rock band over its unauthorized use of "Life in the Fast Lane" in a YouTube ad.

"We apologized for using a portion of 'Life in the Fast Lane' without permission in a YouTube video," said Jay Reiff, Moore’s campaign manager, in a statement. "Our goal was to use a little creativity to inform voters and foster public debate regarding the need for transportation reform in North Carolina. We let our creativity outrun our legal headlights and we regret the error."

Moore agreed to make $25,000 donations to the Community Music School of Raleigh and N.C. Central University's music program.

A special N.C. House committee investigating Rep. Thomas Wright rejected an argument by Wright's attorneys Monday that they don't have jurisdiction over his ethics case.

Irving Joyner, one of Wright's attorneys and an N.C. Central law professor, told the six-member, bipartisan committee that the state constitution does not expressly give the General Assembly the right to discipline or remove members, David Ingram reports.

As a result, Joyner said, neither the committee nor the full House has authority to do so.

"Even if a legislator walked in here and shot someone dead right here, in front of everyone on the World Wide Web, this body would not have the authority to do that," Joyner said.

The only way for a legislator to be removed by force, he added, is for voters to choose someone else to represent them in the next scheduled election.

Rep. Rick Glazier, the committee's chair and a Fayetteville Democrat, rejected that argument and denied Joyner's motion to dismiss the eight ethics charges against Wright.

Bob Orr stressed his connection to historically black colleges at the debate today.

In response to a question about state support for historically black colleges, he cited his 11 years teaching law courses at N.C. Central and his time sitting on the school's Board of Visitors.

"I know exactly the kind of disparity in resources and the disparity in support that historically black universities and colleges in this state have received," he said.

Later, he mentioned to Dome that several of his law clerks had attended N.C. Central.

During the debate, Orr also said he was the only candidate for governor from either party that had attended a "state-supported university." He earned a bachelor of arts and a law degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1971 and 1975.

Dome assumes he means a North Carolina-supported university since Beverly Perdue attended both the University of Kentucky and the University of Florida and Dennis Nielsen earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska.

The other candidates went to private schools.

Richard Moore and Fred Smith both earned their bachelor's and law degrees from Wake Forest University. Bill Graham and Pat McCrory both earned their bachelor's degrees from Catawba College.

Several Triangle-area school districts and two universities are among the 60 recipients of $7 million in dropout prevention grants that lawmakers included in the 2007 state budget.

Recipients include Athens Drive High in Raleigh, Wake Forest-Rolesville Middle School, Durham Public Schools, Communities in Schools of Orange County and Chatham County schools, Dan Kane reports.

A legislative committee will evaluate the programs to determine which are succeeding and should be replicated in other parts of the state. House Speaker Joe Hackney, an Orange County Democrat, is a proponent of the grants, and fought to include them in the budget.

After the jump, a list of the grants.

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State Rep. Thomas Wright, making his first appearance in court since his Dec. 10 indictment on six felony charges, told a judge Monday he has hired an attorney.

Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, said he has hired Douglas Harris of Greensboro. Wright had a different attorney in May when the State Board of Elections urged charges against him for his handling of campaign money, David Ingram reports.

The eight-term legislator declined to comment as he left the Wake County courthouse with his wife and N.C. Central law professor Irving Joyner, who represented Wright during a 10-minute court appearance. Joyner said Harris could not make court Monday because he was in a trial.

Judge Donald Stephens of Wake Superior Court ordered Harris to appear Friday morning.

"I want a lawyer here to stand before me and tell me he represents Mr. Wright," Stephens said. "We need to get past this point and then move on."

Prosecutors turned over to Wright two boxes of documents that investigators have gathered in their year-long probe.

Wright, 52, is scheduled in court again Feb. 4. He faces five charges of obtaining property by false pretenses and one charge of obstruction of justice in connection with allegations that he swindled $350,000 out of banks, corporations and campaign contributors.

The gubernatorial candidate who's taught the most talks the least about it.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue cites her four years of teaching at the K-12 level and Salisbury attorney Bill Graham has noted his community college teaching in the mid '90s.

But though he doesn't mention it often, former Supreme Court justice Bob Orr has more experience.

From 1989 to 2006, he said he has taught at least one course at an area law school.

He's taught legal research and writing at UNC-Chapel Hill for two years; appellate advocacy, state constitutional law and summer school at N.C. Central; and research and appellate advocacy at Campbell University.

He's also taught a state constitutional law seminar at UNC for the past three years.