Gov. Mike Easley wants a judge to throw out a public records lawsuit.

In a motion filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Easley's attorneys argued that the N&O, the Charlotte Observer and nine other news organizations are improperly asking a judge to make sweeping declarations about policies and behavior.

Hugh Stevens, an attorney for the newspapers, said in a statement that the governor's complaint argues that the courts are virtually powerless to enforce the public records law.

"It appears that the governor is taking the position that if he has a public record and refuses to permit its inspection and copying, the courts can act; otherwise, he can ignore the public records law with impunity, even to the extent of destroying public records," Stevens wrote.

The filing Tuesday means the case is likely headed to a courtroom. (N&O)

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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Gov. Mike Easley said today that he has instructed his press office and other state government spokespeople to cooperate better with news media outlets to provide information to the public.

A controversy over the deletion of government e-mail records at his office's behest is distracting his administration from its final year of work, Easley said at an informal meeting this afternoon with the executive director of the N.C. Press Association and the top editors of The News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer and The Carolina Journal.

"I've got basically nine months left in office," Easley said. "We've done a lot of good, but there's a lot more to be done. I want every day to count. I do not want to be distracted with pettiness."

Easley organized the meeting in response to criticism of his administration's handling of requests for information about the state's beleaguered mental health system, including the deletion of staff e-mails that might have been public record.

More after the jump.

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An attorney for Gov. Mike Easley says he can't find any evidence that officials in the governor's office directed any state agency to "systematically delete and destroy email messages exchanged with the Governor's Office."

Reuben F. Young, legal counsel to Easley, wrote today to Hugh Stevens, an attorney for The News & Observer, that he had conducted an investigation into allegations that members of Easley's staff had instructed state agencies to destroy e-mail messages exchanged with the governor's office.

Young said his investigation included discussions with the governor's staff, including the communications director, press secretary and deputy press secretary.

"I have concluded that there is absolutely no evidence to support your allegation," Young wrote, referring to a letter sent Wednesday by Stevens on behalf of The N&O.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina is running ads against Richard Moore.

The group, which represents 55,000 state workers, ran a full-page ad in the News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer and the Asheville Citizen-Times today.

"State employees to Treasurer Richard Moore: Where are our pension fund documents?" the ad reads. It is signed by all 12 members of the executive committee.

The ad references a recent fight that SEANC has had with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate over a public records request. The group has also filed a lawsuit against Moore's office.

Erica Baldwin, SEANC's assistant director of communications, said that it was the first time in recent memory that the group had taken out such a large ad, but she said it has nothing to do with the ongoing Democratic gubernatorial primary.

"It's not a political statement at all, but a statement about public accountability," she said.

A full-page ad in the front section of the N&O on a Wednesday for a political organization would cost around $7,800, according to this rate card. It could be as much as $10,900 for the Asheville Citizen-Times, according to this rate card. A full-page ad in the Charlotte Observer would cost from $9,855 to $37,125. 

Amanda Martin, general counsel for the N.C. Press Association, said it was an unusual move.

"I have never known of a public records requester bolstering his or her request by an ad in the newspaper or anywhere else," she said.

Update: A spokeswoman for the treasurer's office said in a statement that the ad is incorrect.

"We are disappointed by this move by SEANC, as the Department of State Treasurer has followed both the spirit and the letter of the law in providing documents requested by SEANC," said Sara Lang.

In true Southern fashion, Dome has found an embarassing relation.

As it turns out, the last person to be expelled from the state legislature—for calling the speaker a "gander head" as you may recall—was publisher of the forerunner of the N&O.

Here's the story, from William S. Powell's inestimable "Encyclopedia of North Carolina" (p. 944).

The Raleigh Sentinel was founded in 1865 to "fight against the domination of carpetbaggers and other forces" during Reconstruction, Powell writes. Josiah Turner Jr. bought the paper in 1868:

Turner's crusade is considered to have been largely responsible for the recapture of the state legislature by the Democrats (then called Conservatives) and for the overthrow of Governor William W. Holden in 1870 and his impeachment in 1871.

But, Powell writes, Turner was "no financial wizard" and the paper ended up in the hands of the publishers of the Raleigh Observer. Eventually, they folded the paper into the N&O.

The N&O's editorial board says Rep. Thomas Wright should resign.

In an unsigned editorial today, the Raleigh newspaper said that the Wilmington Democrat is "presumed innocent" of the six corruption charges handed down by a Wake County grand jury Monday.

But his situation is an embarrassment to the legislature, to his party and to the public. With his credibility and effectiveness under such a cloud, it's high time he resigned from the House.

The board also says that Wright has been a "legislative ghost" this year, missing more votes than any rank-and-file member, though still collecting his $104 per diem. 

The N&O's archives are now online.

Dome readers who want to research the candidates for governor, U.S. Senate or other offices or peruse old Rob Christensen columns can now do so for free.

In addition, each story comes with a permanent URL — which means no more dead links!

To search the new archives, go here or click on Print Edition Archives under the Shortcuts menu on the N&O home page.

The archives are from July 1990 to present. Articles from the Chapel Hill News date back to the year 2000. Syndicated columnists and some non-local news are not available.

A new study claims North Carolina's editorial pages skew conservative.

The study by Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog group, is based on syndicated columns run in the state's papers.

According to the survey, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, The Dunn Daily Record, The Shelby Star and the Wilson Daily Times have the most conservative Op-Ed pages in the state. Each runs 100 percent conservatives, by Media Matters' calculation.

On the other side, only the Laurinburg Exchange runs 100 percent progressives, the group says.

The N&O runs 44 percent conservative to 33 percent progressive, while the Charlotte Observer breaks 46 percent conservative to 38 percent progressive. (The rest are centrist.)

As Laura Leslie points out on Hunter's Tavern, however, the study has some flaws, most notably that it lists John Locke Foundation head John Hood as a centrist.