State Department of Justice employees had an uncomfortable day without air conditioning, phones or Internet access after a ruptured pipe flooded the sub-basement of the Old Education Building in downtown Raleigh late Wednesday.

The power was restored before the work day began, but the air conditioning didn't come back on until early afternoon, said Jill Lucas, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration, which manages state buildings.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said phone and Internet service was still an issue at the end of the work day.

She went home after several hours to check email.

"I have a laptop I take back and forth to work," Talley said. "It's convenient at a time like this."

Being a budget writer has its perks.

As a first-time Senate Appropriations co-chair, Sen. Kay Hagan got a few provisions in the 2003 budget to help out her home district and other pet projects.

Here's a quick look:

Millennium Campus: Hagan canceled the proposed sale of a former school for deaf children, then gave the land to N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro for a research campus (Section 6.20).

Tuition Promise: Hagan promoted a provision that gave free tuition to state universities to all graduates of the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics (Section 9.4).

Furniture Market: At Hagan's request, the budget included $900,000 for a free shuttle service for the twice-yearly High Point Furniture Market (Section 29.17).

Civil Rights Museum: Hagan sought $1 million for a long-planned International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, but it was cut by the House.

Hagan also added a provision calling testing the backlog of rape kits a "priority" for the N.C. Department of Justice (Section 14.7) and funding five pilot programs to teach financial literacy to high school students (Section 7.35).

She also limited a Republican proposal to require reports on spending by nonprofits that receive state money to those with grants of more than $300,000 (Section 6.21).

The Council of State won't budge on its approval of the state's revised execution protocol.

Attorneys for the council responded Monday to a group of five condemned inmates who appealed the council's approval of the protocol. Attorneys with the N.C. Department of Justice filed the response in Wake Superior Court, Titan Barksdale reports.

The inmates have said the council's approval in February 2007 was improper because it didn't hear from their attorneys first.

The council contends that the inmates don't have the right to challenge the protocol in court because the state Department of Correction offers inmates a way to challenge it. The council, a group of the state's top elected officials, added that the prisoners have failed to show they are harmed by the execution protocol.

"Injury only occurs if the execution protocol is improperly implemented," the council's response said.

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)