After-school programs for middle-schoolers could lose funding.

Started in 1994, the Support Our Students program has provided grants to provide after-school programs to at-risk kids. It is currently administered by the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice.

The $5.9 million program is among 20 that Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed eliminating as part of her $21 billion budget.

During the 2007-08 fiscal year, the program served 14,333 youth in programs run in 92 counties by local schools and nonprofits. Programs include homework, conflict management skills and recreational activities such as basketball.

"We know the prime time for juvenile crime is between 3 and 6 o'clock, right after school," Juvenile Justice spokesman William Lassiter said.

An annual evaluation of the program conducted by an outside agency found that 86 percent of surveyed youths said it helped them do better in school and nearly half improved their math and language arts grades.

Only 1.3 percent were involved in the juvenile justice system at year's end. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed cutting 20 programs.

As part of her $21 billion budget, Perdue proposed eliminating funding for everything from an online cultural heritage program to the UNC Center for Alcohol Studies.

The biggest cut is closing two adult bed units at Broughton and Cherry state mental hospitals, which would save $6 million in recurring funds. The smallest is $17,194 for the History Bowl program.

Other major suggested cuts:

* The Support Our Students program in the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice: $5.9 million.

* Basic support case services in vocational rehabilitation at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services: $3.6 million.

* A Community Service Block Grant through the N.C. Community College System: $1.9 million.

* An apprenticeship program at the N.C. Department of Labor: $1.8 million.

* Eliminating a reserve for focus growth at the University of North Carolina system: $1.3 million.

There are only a handful of glass ceilings left in North Carolina.

As of this November, women have been successfully elected to nearly all of the statewide positions and have served in a number of appointed posts as well.

But a few glass ceilings remain, mostly in the legislature and in law enforcement.

HOUSE SPEAKER: No woman has served as speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives.

SENATE LEADER: No woman has led the Senate, either when the lieutenant governor had most of the power or more recently when the Senate president pro tem became more powerful. (Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue served as lieutenant governor when that role had fewer responsibilities.)

LEGISLATIVE MAJORITY: Women have never held the majority of seats in either the House or Senate.

ATTORNEY GENERAL: No woman has been elected the state's top cop.

CRIME CONTROL SECRETARY: No woman has overseen the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, a member of the governor's Cabinet.

CORRECTION SECRETARY: No woman has been appointed to head the state Department of Correction.

In addition, no woman has served as state insurance commissioner, though that job has been held by Jim Long for decades so few men have had the chance either; or as secretary of Environment and Natural Resources or secretary of Transportation, two appointed positions.

Could Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue remake the Cabinet?

As the public and the press (well, the press mostly) awaits the announcements of Perdue's 10 appointed department heads, it's worth noting that she could do more than shuffle names. She could rewrite the jobs, too.

The current lineup of the Cabinet only dates to 2000, when Gov. Jim Hunt appointed the state's first Secretary of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Hunt, who also created the veto and the governor's second (and third and fourth) terms, was a notorious Cabinet woodworker. In 1977, he rewrote the Secretary of Commerce's job to include business recruiting, now its central mission.

He also appointed the first Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety that same year, protected the job from critics, then switched sides and supported an unsuccessful move to kill it.

Currently, the most common suggestion is to get rid of the Secretary of Cultural Resources, who's been on leave since May. But the job, which dates to 1971, has strong defenders in the arts community and will likely survive.

Efforts in recent years to cut the Crime Control job have met with stiff resistance from law enforcement, and Perdue is unlikely to go after Juvenile Justice.

That leaves four heavyweights — Environment and Natural Resources, Health and Human Services, Transportation and Correction — and two jobs that keep state government humming, Revenue and Administration.

The first and only state secretary of juvenile justice will retire Dec. 31.

George Sweat, a former Winston-Salem police chief who moved to Raleigh to head up a juvenile justice program in 1998, was appointed the first secretary of the newly created Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention by Gov. Jim Hunt in 2000.

He was reappointed by Gov. Mike Easley to two more terms.

Spokesman William Lassiter said that Sweat is retiring at the end of the year, shortly before the end of Easley's second term and the inauguration of Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

After graduating from East Carolina University, Sweat began his career in 1970 with the Winston-Salem Police Department, eventually being named police chief in 1987. He served in that position for 12 years.

Perdue's transition team has not made any announcements about Sweat's replacement.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the year Sweat became police chief.

A state audit of juvenile prevention programs funded by the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention found that some of the recipients have conflicts of interest because they serve on county councils that award the money.

State Auditor Les Merritt said in a news release that the audit did not find examples of abuse in the program. He said that the department and the county councils need to do a better job of monitoring the community programs they fund, Dan Kane reports.

Some data on the programs that auditors examined was found inaccurate.

The state department provides more than $20 million to county Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils, which then award it to community programs intended to reduce and prevent juvenile crime. Earlier this year, state lawmakers studied the JCPCs to determine if they were working properly before awarding them funding in this year's budget.

The audit found that JCPC council members in 14 counties — none in the Triangle — are also managers and directors of the programs they are funding. "Although our audit did not find abuse, these conflicting duties create the potential for abuse," the audit said.

Merritt said the audit findings are "real opportunities for State leaders and local managers to reinvest in JCPCs and work together to help build stronger communities."

In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, JCPCs funded 499 programs that served more than 34,000 youths.