Former Gov. Mike Easley inducted more than 4,000 North Carolinians.

Between January 2001 and January 2009, the two-term Democratic governor added state residents into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine at a rate of nearly 10 a week, or more than one a day.

Notable recipients included former U.S. Attorney Janice McKenzie Cole, Broadway costumer designer William Ivey Long, architectural historian Catherine Bishir, Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts and painter Bob Timberlake.

A number of politicians also made the list: former state Sen. Aaron Plyler, former state Rep. Zeno Edwards Jr., former UNC system president Bill Friday, Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, former Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr., former Wake County Commissioner Betty Ann Knudsen, Charlotte City Councilwoman Susan Burgess and former Wendell Mayor Lucius Jones.

A few on the list are not North Carolinians: civil rights advocate Coretta Scott King, actor Danny Glover and Navy aerobatic pilots the Blue Angels.

Also on the list: his in-laws, Ann and James Pipines, fundraiser Louis Sewell, and several members of his Cabinet. The list does not include Robert Lee Guy, however.

See anyone else interesting on the list? Post in the comments below or e-mail dome@newsobserver.com.

After the jump, the number given each year.

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At least four potential picks for Supreme Court have Tar Heel ties.

Although President Obama has not compiled a short list for the replacement for retiring Justice David Souter, that hasn't stopped observers from speculating.

Here are four who have some ties to North Carolina: 

* Patricia Timmons-Goodson. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's and law degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. Qualification: Justice on the N.C. Supreme Court since 2006, former prosecutor and Distirct Court judge. Mentioned by: ScotusBlog.

* Teresa Wynn Roseborough. N.C. Ties: Graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill law school in 1986, edited the N.C. Law Review. Qualification: Former deputy assistant attorney general under President Clinton. Mentioned by: Huffington Post

* Johnnie B. Rawlinson. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's at N.C. A&T State University. Qualification: Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit since 2000. Mentioned by: Associated Press.

* Virginia Seitz. N.C. Ties: Earned bachelor's degree from Duke University. Qualification: Has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mentioned by: Legal Times. 

The N.C. Supreme Court has ruled that doctors can be present at executions.

In a 4-3 decision authored by Justice Edward Thomas Brady, the court found that the N.C. Medical Board could not prohibit physicians from participating in the state's capital punishment procedures.

A state statute, "by its plain language, envisions physician participation in executions in some professional capacity," Brady wrote.

The medical board, a professional group that sets ethics rules for doctors, had barred doctors from monitoring inmates who were being put to death. In a lawsuit, the state Department of Correction argued that state law requiring doctors trumped the board's decision.

A Wake County Superior Court judge sided with the state in 2007, but executions remained in limbo while the case was being resolved. In today's ruling, the majority of the state Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's ruling.

In a dissent, Justices Robin Hudson and Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Chief Justice Sarah Parker argued the court should have let the legislature decide the issue.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan may help name two federal judges.

The first-term Democratic senator will likely give advice to President Obama, who may fill at least two of the four vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, reports former Domester David Ingram, now of the Legal Times.

She met with several possible nominees for the 4th Circuit a few weeks ago, but she does not appear to have moved quickly to set up an internal system for recommending anyone, says Burley Mitchell Jr., a former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court and a partner in the Raleigh office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.

"She’s just gotten there," Mitchell says. "I don’t think that they've even worked out any of the mechanisms."

Hagan's office declined to comment on the process. Possible nominees include UNC-Chapel Hill law professor S. Elizabeth Gibson, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rich Leonard and N.C. Appeals Court Judge Jim Wynn.

Others who are interested include U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr.; private lawyers James Cooney III, Douglas Kingsbery and Robert Spearman; Southern Coalition for Social Justice director Anita Earls, N.C. Appeals Judge Martha Geer and N.C. Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson.

A Dome reader sends along one more name for the Fourth Circuit.

Following on the logic of other would-be judges, the legal insider writes that S. Elizabeth Gibson of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law may also be under consideration.

Gibson clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court and worked for a Washington, D.C., law firm before becoming a professor.

She was nominated under President Clinton as well.

Other names previously mentioned: James A. Beaty Jr., Charles Becton, Robert Spearman, Rich Leonard, Jim Wynn, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Martha Geer.

Two more names have been mentioned for the Fourth Circuit.

A knowledgeable insider tells Dome that James A. Beaty Jr. and Charles Becton might also be under consideration by President-elect Barack Obama for the vacant seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Beaty was nominated in the mid 1990s, but his appointment languished in committee and he currently is a U.S. District Court judge. Becton is another former would-be judge from the Clinton years, and is currently serving as president of the N.C. Bar Association.

Other names previously mentioned: Robert Spearman, Rich Leonard, Jim Wynn, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Martha Geer.

Several of the picks would allow liberals to have the last laugh over former Sen. Jesse Helms, who blocked Leonard, Wynn and Spearman from judgeships during his long career.

Four North Carolinians could be up for a federal judgeship.

President-elect Barack Obama and the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate will have the opportunity next year to fill four vacancies on the Fourth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The Richmond-based court oversees cases from the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Because of its reputation as the most conservative appeals court in the country, many legal experts expect Obama and the Senate to attempt to move the court leftward.

Although a North Carolinian will not necessarily be nominated, the talk in Raleigh's legal circles is that four Tar Heels may be up for consideration:

Rich Leonard: A U.S. Bankrtupcy Court judge in the Eastern District, Leonard came close to an appointment before because of his friendship with former Sen. John Edwards.

Jim Wynn: A state Appeals Court judge, Wynn also came close during the Clinton administration but Sen. Jesse Helms blocked his appointment.

Patricia Timmons-Goodson: A state Supreme Court justice, Timmons-Goodson also made a lengthy list of potential Supreme Court picks by Scotusblog.com.

Martha Geer: A state Appeals Court judge, Geer handled a number of cases in the U.S. Appeals Court while in private practice handling corporate litigation.

The usual caveats apply. As with all conventional wisdom, these names have surfaced because they are the most obvious picks, but that doesn't mean they're the only choices.

A majority of state appellate judges are women.

After Cheri Beasley's win in November, eight of the 15 seats on the N.C. Court of Appeals are held by women. The court is the second-highest in the state after the Supreme Court.

Along with Beasley, the female judges are Linda Stephens, Linda McGee, Wanda Bryant, Ann Marie Calabria, Martha Geer, Barbara Jackson and Donna Stroud.

Although the posts are officially nonpartisan, Calabria, Jackson and Stroud are Republicans; the rest of the judges are Democrats. They are elected statewide.

Two other women, Jewel Ann Farlow and Kristin Ruth, lost campaigns in November.

State Supreme Court justices Robin Hudson, Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Sarah Parker previously served as judges on the Court of Appeals.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Jackson's affiliation.

Three of seven state Supreme Court justices are women.

With Justice Bob Edmunds winning a second term in November, the women on the state's highest court remain Chief Justice Sarah Parker and associate justices Patricia Timmons-Goodson and Robin Hudson.

Although the positions are officially nonpartisan, all three are Democrats.

Timmons-Goodson and Hudson were elected in 2006.

A Supreme Court justice since 1992 and chief justice since 2006, Parker is the longest-sitting member of the current justices. She is also the third woman to serve as chief justice in North Carolina.

The first, Susie Sharp, was elected to that post in 1974, the first woman in the country to be elected the chief justice of a state supreme court. The second, Rhoda Billings, was appointed in 1986 but lost an election to the post that fall. Billings was the only Republican woman to serve on the court.

No other women have served on the N.C. Supreme Court.

Plans to build a $2.7 million topless club in a fast-growing corridor of northwest Raleigh took a hit today when the N.C. Supreme Court ruled that neighboring businesses have the right to oppose a city permit for the club on the grounds it would hurt them financially.

The decision is the latest in a three-year battle between the club's partners and neighboring businesses to the property on Mount Herman Road near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Dan Kane reports.

The club would be called The Runway, and could seat as many as 560 people. It would be the city's first topless club in 16 years.

The Raleigh Board of Adjustment is required to approve a special use permit for such businesses. Phong Nguyen, a Raleigh doctor who practices in Virginia, and his partners won the permit in 2005. But then two neighboring businesses and a third nearby convinced a state Superior Court judge to throw out the permit.

The businesses said the topless club would cause economic hardship and reduced property values through increased traffic and an unsavory clientele.

The Christian group Called2Action has also sought to prevent the club's construction.

The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the businesses — Triangle Equipment Co., Triangle Coatings and the Angus Barn Restaurant — did not have standing to challenge the permit. The high court reversed the appellate court decision. Supreme Court Associate Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson dissented from the opinion.

Nguyen has since sold out his interest in the club to David "Slim" Baucom, a Charlotte-area businessman who owns adult establishments in North Carolina and the Southeast.