ON SPEED DIAL: 911 calls about incidents at state Sen. R.C. Soles Jr.'s house are a routine occurrence in Columbus County. One call came because a group of young men were riding around his house on mopeds. (N&O)

AND THE WINNER IS: President Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The president took office two weeks before the deadline to make nominations so it's fair to say the prize was for the things he said he would do, rather than any actual achievements. (AP)

Beverly Perdue just gave a UNC-Chapel Hill professor another award.

Presiding over the state Senate's honoring of Dr. Oliver Smithies, the lieutenant governor congratulated him on winning the "Nobel Peace Prize."

Smithies was a joint recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his work on gene modification of stem cells in mice.

But who knows? Maybe genetically modified mice will play a role in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or introducing democracy in North Korea. 

Heck, it's probably worth a try.