* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark says that despite cuts this year, Gov. Beverly Perdue's 2010-11 budget would be the biggest ever.

* Jordan Schrader lists the professions whose licensing fees would go from $50 to $200. It includes massage therapists, CPAs, embalmers and "the art of healing."

* Asheville blogger Ashvegas gives Perdue a shoutout for posting the entire line-item budget online. "I love this kind of detail." 

* Conservative advocate Francis De Luca argues that Perdue's plan "proposes no long term fixes for the problem of chronic overspending." 

The town of Apex saved $13,000 with online notices.

About a year ago, Town Clerk Georgia Evangelist heard that the city of Raleigh was publishing its meeting notices online.

She decided to try a similar program for the town of Apex, which is near Research Triangle Park in Wake County.

Apex and several other Wake towns got permission from a special bill in the legislature last year to publish online, instead of in the local newspaper. A bill filed this year would expand the program statewide.

Evangelist said the town still occasionally advertises in the Apex Herald and The News & Observer. It also sends letters to neighbors who may be affected.

"We still advertise in the paper when it's something we need to get our more widely, like a pre-budget hearing," she said.'

Update: Cary spokeswoman Susan Moran estimated the town spends $20,000 a year on online notices, although it still advertises in the local newspapers as well. 

A bill would allow town meetings to be publicized online.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, said he filed the bill to expand a local program in small towns in Wake County that allowed them to avoid expensive legal notices in the local newspaper.

Instead, the towns of Apex, Cary, Garner and Knightdale have posted notices of upcoming zoning hearings and town council meetings on their Web sites. Stam said the program saved the towns money while still getting the word out.

"Most people aren't affected by it," he said. "Most people don't care whether there's an ad in the paper or not. The purpose is to put it out there publicly so that someone who wants to know what's going on has a source to find it."

The bill would not affect all legal notices. Towns would still have to notify neighbors of affected properties by mail, and foreclosure notices and civil actions would still have to be publicized in local papers.  

In addition, Stam is considering adding provisions to help local officials determine whether they have sufficient Internet penetration.

Linda Daves is worried that Gov. Mike Easley might get sunburned.

At a press conference this afternoon, the chairwoman of the state Republican Party joked that the governor, a Democrat, should be careful during Thursday's "Sunshine Day" on open government.

"I know that the Democrats here in Raleigh will have a hard time coping with sunlight when they have for so long concealed their deeds in darkness," she said.

Daves then displayed two gifts for Easley and Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meek: A bottle of Coppertone Sport 50 SPF sunscreen and a bottle of Banana Boat aloe after-sun gel.

Daves criticized Easley's plan to have one of his senior assistants review his e-mail retention policy.

"It is more of the same-old, same-old," she said. "The governor has consistently not addressed issues until he has his back against the wall. Study commissions are, in my opinion, a ploy and a way to say we're doing something but we really are not doing something."

She said Attorney General Roy Cooper should launch an independent investigation, adding that his Republican rival, Bob Crumley, would.