There will be plenty of talk in the Triangle about health care in the coming days.

The N.C. Chamber is hosting a conference on health care on Wednesday, Sept. 30, featuring Ron Brownstein, political director for Atlantic Media Co. and a former political columnist for The Los Angeles Times.

Among those taking part in panel discussions at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham will be Bob Greczyn, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, Grace Terrell, president and CEO of Cornerstone Healthcare, and and Paul Wiles, president of Novant Health.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, N.C. Policy Watch is bringing in Wendell Potter, a former health care insurance industry executive who is critical of industry efforts to block health care reform. He will speak at the Marbles Kids Museum at lunch time.

While he won't just be talking about only health care, journalist Michael Barone is expected to dissect the agenda of President Barack Obama for the John Locke Foundation at a lunch on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the North Raleigh Hilton.

Barone is a contributor for Fox News and a senior political writer for the Washington Examiner.

* Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts says North Carolina "has long been under-represented" in the Fourth Circuit because of partisan differences.

* Biofuels Center of North Carolina names W. Steven Burke as president, longtime political insider Norris Tolson as chairman of the board.

* N.C. Policy Watch's Adam Linker can't find a copy of State Health Plan head Jack Walker's doctoral thesis in ProQuest/UMI database.

* Democratic pollster Tom Jensen and Greensboro columnist Doug Clark agree that Rep. Heath Shuler's decision not to run for Senate is a good thing.

N.C. Policy Watch blogger Adam Linker is questioning the doctoral degree that Jack Walker, the State Health Plan executive administrator, received from a now-defunct private California institution.

Walker claims a Ph.D. in Administration and Management from Columbia Pacific University, near San Francisco, Dan Kane reports.

The for-profit correspondence school went out of business in 2000 after more than 20 years of operation. Walker said he received his degree in 1992.

The school was never accredited by any national or regional institution, and in 1997, a California deputy attorney general called it a diploma mill as part of a complaint to shut it down.

In a post on the Progressive Pulse group blog, Linker said the state deserves better than having someone with a "fake degree" running the health plan serving 667,000 employees, teachers and retirees.

Walker said in an interview that his degree is legitimate. Joanne Wenzel of California's consumer affairs department said the state gave approval to degrees the school issued from 1978 to 1997.

He said his dissertation on health care administration was strong enough to be published by the University of Michigan. The university could not immediately confirm that information on Monday.

Walker served as the state health plan's administrator from 1999 to 2005. He became interim administrator last year after the legislative leaders in charge of the plan fired George Stokes.

Walker makes $200,000 a year as the interim administrator, $32,000 more than his predecessor.

House Speaker Joe Hackney said the recession and the accompanying federal stimulus program offer a chance to get some badly needed projects done across the state.

President Barack Obama and Gov. Beverly Perdue both campaign on promises to push green jobs and better insulate homes against the weather, Ben Niolet reports.

Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the liberal N.C. Policy Watch think tank today, Hackney said the stimulus package, which could send billions to the state, would pay for a lot of those items. 

"Some things that have needed doing for a long time ... will get done," Hackney said

Chris Fitzsimon of N.C Policy Watch is one of the leading liberal voices in the state capital.

He is also something of a poet and has written a politically-influenced take-off on "A Visit from St. Nicholas," otherwise known as "The Night Before Christmas."

Here is an excerpt dealing with Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

"Twas the week before Christmas, and through the Carolina mist,
The new Sheriff in town was making her list.
Who's been naughty or nice, who knows who and who gave,
For those well-connected, a position they must save.
Change swept through D.C, not much to Raleigh came
Some faces are new, but the real power's the same.
Big business can get in doors, through which they want to go,
To sign off on an appointment, or use their veto.
Bev's promising to find the best for each and every position,
Let’s hope that's the reason for the frustrating transition."

Chris Fitzsimon says Dempsey Benton may not be leaving after all.

In a column on the N.C. Policy Watch Web site, the liberal commentator says the current secretary of Health and Human Services' retirement announcement may have come too soon.

Even things that seem to be decided may not be. Perdue announced two weeks ago that current Health and Human Services Secretary Dempsey Benton would not be staying on the job, but now there are reports that she is rethinking that decision and considering asking Benton to stay.  The sticking point may be Benton's willingness to commit to serving in the job for the length of Perdue's first term.

Longtime Dome readers know what's next: The Magic Eight Ball.

We asked the cheap toy if Benton would stay. It's response: "Outlook good." 

A progressive group is hoping to land the first punch in the budget fight.

The N.C. Budget and Tax Center issued a report today arguing that spending has actually decreased in North Carolina since the start of the 1999 fiscal year.

With the state facing a budget shortfall that Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue says could be as large as $3 billion, legislators will soon begin considering spending cuts.

But the Budget and Tax Center report says that per capita spending has dropped $19 per person since 1999 when adjusted for inflation.

"North Carolina's population has grown by an estimated 1.3 million people, or 17 percent since 2000," writes Meg Gray Wiehe, the report's author. "However, state spending has not kept up with population growth over the past decade."

The report also finds that the proportion of general fund appropriations to the state's total personal income has also decreased, from 7 percent in 1999 to 6.7 percent this year.

Rob Schofield, policy director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch think tank, said that his group will push for comprehensive reforms, such as broadening the sales tax to include services, rather than simply across the board spending cuts.

"We'll be making the point that this is a revenue crisis and not a spending crisis," he said.

Senate leader Marc Basnight's recommendation to lead the transportation department has Chris Fitzsimon thinking of ideas for other cabinet posts.

How about Randy Parton to lead Cultural Resources?

The satirical nomination from Fitzsimon, executive director of N.C. Policy Watch, comes after Basnight said he supports Lanny Wilson for Secretary of Transportation. Basnight suggested the pick to Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue.

"Wilson may be a nice guy, but he is the epitome of a DOT political insider, the folks who have run the department for years and damaged its credibility with the public," Fitzsimon writes on the Fitzsimon File. "Wilson is exactly the kind of guy Perdue promised not to appoint if she was serious about her plans for DOT reform."

Wilson is an attorney and developer who gave $38,800 to Democratic candidates this election cycle, including $4,000 to Perdue. He also gave $21,000 to the State Democratic Party. He is used to donating.

Wilson gave more than $175,000 to Democratic politicians from 1999-2006 and raised untold thousands more. Governor Mike Easley appointed Wilson to the N.C. Real Estate Commission. Senate President Pro Tem Basnight appointed him to the N.C. Turnpike Authority.

Wilson also has a home on exclusive Figure Eight Island and hosted a dinner there for members of the 21^st Century Transportation Committee earlier this year. A group of homeowners at Figure Eight have formed a political action committee and hired lobbyists to overturn the state law that prohibits seawalls off the shore. The beach is eroding in front of some of the palatial estates on the islands. Seawalls are banned in front of beach property because they increase the erosion down the coastline.

How about it? Any other suggestions (serious or otherwise) for cabinet posts?

Gov. Mike Easley says he’ll ask his press staff to start treating the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Journal like any other news media outlet from now on.

Easley said Wednesday that he has told his senior staff and spokespeople to cooperate better with the state’s news media to get information to the public.

And Easley said he’d prod them to give equal access to the Journal, which routinely gigs him, reports Matthew Eisley.

In a meeting Easley convened at the Executive Mansion with the head of the N.C. Press Association and the top editors of The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer, and the Carolina Journal, Journal Editor Richard Wagner asked the governor why his press office won’t respond to the publication’s information requests.

“It’s been reported that we were at the top of the do-not-call list,” Wagner said.

Perhaps coincidentally, the conservative Journal regularly publishes investigations critical of Easley, a Democrat, and other people in his administration.

Easley said his press office’s policy is not to respond to information requests from the Journal or other nonprofit advocacy groups, including its liberal counterpoint, N.C. Policy Watch.

Read more after the jump.

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Chris Fitzsimon notes a disconnect in Beverly Perdue's debate performance.

In his column on N.C. Policy Watch, he writes that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate attacked rival Richard Moore for being "from Wall Street" and not "from Main Street." 

But she then went on to say that she wanted to be "the next CEO of North Carolina." 

"Aren't most CEOs from Wall Street?" Fitzsimon asks.