A coalition of civil rights groups has launched a television ad in four states, including North Carolina, meant to drum up support for Democratic health care proposals.

The organizations — the NAACP National Voter Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Campaign for Community Change, the United States Student Association and PowerPAC.org — are initially targeting states with large African American and Latino populations. The ad is also available in Spanish.

The ad is rich with Civil Rights imagery. The English version features an older African American man walking as people board a bus in the background. He begins by saying when he was born, health care reform failed. The description is clearly meant to evoke unfair and discriminatory busing practices of the Civil Rights era. Later in the ad, a Hispanic woman tries to board the bus, but the door closes on her.

The ad is also set to run in Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The National NAACP wants the legislature to pass a bill that would let people facing the death penalty argue that race was a significant factor in prosecutors' decision to seek the death penalty or in juries' voting to impose it.

The bill, known as the Racial Justice Act, is being pushed by the state NAACP and other groups, Lynn Bonner reports.

The bill passed the Senate with a provision the death-penalty opponents don't want, one that aims to restart executions after a de facto moratorium of more than two years.

The National NAACP set up an easy way for supporters to send e-mail messages to House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate leader Marc Basnight asking them to get the bill passed without the Senate addition.

A bill that would allow local governments to opt out of the requirement to advertise public hearings in newspapers has been set aside.

In its place, Rep. Paul Stam plans to push a local bill that would allow up to 14 municipalities to be excluded from the requirement, he told a House committee Thursday. The House's rules say that any more than 14 and the bill would have to apply statewide, as Stam's earlier version did. Local bills often have an easier time getting approved on the House floor.

Stam, an Apex Republican and House minority leader said his bill is meant to save cities and towns money by allowing them to use their Web sites to announce public hearings.

"I personally read five papers and enjoy them all," Stam said. "That's not where people go to find out what's happening."

NAACP and newspapers object after the jump.

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* Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Cabarrus County Republican, lets out his inner Erin Brockovich in argument over Alcoa project on Yadkin River.

* NAACP praises Gov. Beverly Perdue for choosing first black district attorney in Eastern North Carolina; second currently serving in state.

* Liberal talk show host Keith Olbermann labels U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx "Worst Person in the World" for Matthew Shepard remarks.

* More signs of Senate '10: Americans United for Change criticizes Sen. Richard Burr in press release for voting against Obama's budget.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan will hold a roundtable on the stimulus.

The Greensboro Democrat and other local, state and federal officials will discuss how female- and minority-owned businesses, small companies and nonprofits can access federal stimulus funds.

State stimulus czar Dempsey Benton, Lee Cornelison of the U.S. Small Business Administration, David Heinen of the N.C. Center for Nonprofits and N.C. Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms, among others, will also speak.

The forum will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday at the Mary Townes Science Complex at N.C. Central University in Durham.

Hagan said the forum was inspired by complaints from the state NAACP executive council about the challenges of minority-owned businesses.

She has also posted an online resource guide about the stimulus package.

Gov. Beverly Perdue was urged by NAACP leaders this week to make sure the budget cuts do not fall primarily on the poor.

"Our concern is that we can't balance the budget on the backs of the poor," said the Rev. William Barber, the state NAACP president, Rob Christensen reports.

Twenty-one NAACP members and their allies met at the Executive Mansion with Perdue Monday afternoon for about an hour and a half. The civil rights group had asked for the meeting so that the governor could hear directly what their concerns were.

Barber said the group stressed the need to make sure that some of the federal stimulus money goes to African-American business people, that the governor’s staff is racially diverse, that the public schools not become racially re-segregrated, that the state should e need for more black district attorneys.

The NAACP is pressing the governor appoint an African-American to replace Howard S. Boney, who is retiring May 1 after 31 years as DA for the 7th judicial district that covers Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson Counties.

Other issues included ending the death penalty, pulling back on the program to deport illegal aliens who have been arrested for minor violations. The group also expressed concern about hate crimes, specifically a firebombing being investigated in Scotland Neck.

Barber said he appreciated the governor taking time to meet with the NAACP and she promised to meet with them regularly to hear their concerns.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has changed up her staff.

The Greensboro Democrat named as her new state director Melissa Midgett, a Dare County native who has worked for her for several years, most recently as deputy state director.

Hagan also named as her new deputy state director Tony Caravano, deputy director of UNC Tomorrow at the University of North Carolina System.

Caravano formerly worked for Senate leader Marc Basnight, a key ally of Hagan's when she was in the state Senate.

The staff changes come a little more than a month after Hagan hired and immediately fired longtime fiscal analyst Fred Aikens and let go of state political director Muthoni Wambu.

The state chapter of the NAACP is looking into those firings.

Update: Hagan also announced that Jennifer Johnson will work as constituent services director and Caitlin Legacki will be state press secretary.

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* N&O editorial writer Allen Torrey wonders whether it's really that much of a hardship to not buy liquor on Sundays, praises Chick-fil-A.

* Liberal commentator Chris Fitzsimon (sarcastically) suggests selling lottery tickets at unemployment offices and social services departments.

* Conservative Civitas think tank once again finds that many North Carolinians don't know which party controls the legislature. (It's Democrats, btw.)

* N.C. chapter of the NAACP confirms to the Wilmington Journal that it's looking into Sen. Kay Hagan's firing of two staffers.  

The North Carolina NAACP blasted the U.S. Supreme Court today for its interpretation of the federal Voting Rights Act, saying the decision was a “direct blow” to the state’s efforts to heal the “racist wounds of the past.”

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision issued Monday, found that the Voting Rights Act did not apply to legislative districts that are less than 50 percent minority. As a result, state lawmakers will have to re-fashion districts in the Wilmington area so that Pender County is not split among two districts.

Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said the decision ignores the troubled history in that part of the state, reports Dan Kane.

In 1898, white supremacist mobs came to Wilmington, which was governed by a “Fusionist” coalition of black and white council members. The mobs drove out the elected leaders, burned down a black-owned newspaper and killed at least 14 blacks.

“Somebody’s really got to examine this from the perspective that people don’t really know the history,” Barber said. “They don’t know that Pender County was separated (from New Hanover County) to make it an all-white county.”

More after the jump.

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* WUNC reporter Laura Leslie defends N&O ombudsman taking job at state agency, arguing that he's an "excellent communicator" in a tough industry.

* Schools Superintendent June Atkinson tells Fayetteville Observer she has no plans to sue the state over her job description.

* Conservative activist Francis De Luca argues that Rev. William Barber of the state chapter of the NAACP should have to register as a lobbyist.

* The president of the state Bankers Association is pushing to rename Raleigh-Durham International Airport after the Wright Brothers.