U.S. Rep. David Price is meeting this afternoon with new Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Price holds the purse strings for the Homeland Security agency as chairman of the spending subcommittee with jurisdiction over the department. He plans to talk with her today about his priorities within the department, said his spokesman, Paul Cox.

Those include focusing enforcement efforts on criminal illegal immigrants, and ensuring that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has a strong connection with local and state governments.

The meeting also could be helpful to Napolitano as she shapes her budget request for next fiscal year. She will go before Price’s panel this spring to ask for funding for the agency.

As the federal government moves ahead with its prosecution of Blackwater employees involved in civilian deaths in Iraq, U.S. Rep. David Price says the courts — not the Department of Defense — will decide whether the guards can be prosecuted under the law.

Blackwater guards killed 17 civilians on Sept. 16, 2007, in Baghdad during a convoy detailed to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Barb Barrett reports.

The U.S. Department of Defense told Price in December 2007 that because Blackwater was working for the Department of State during the incident, the guards could not be subject to prosecution in the United States. The letter came from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England.

The U.S. Department of Justice now disputes that. It filed a legal brief last week arguing that Defense and State were working together, and therefore the guards could be prosecuted.

A Memorandum of Understanding signed Dec. 5, 2007, — after the incident — says the State and Defense departments will "jointly develop, implement and follow core standards" of private security contractors such as Blackwater.

The memo says the standards would include a "clear legal basis for holding (U.S. Government) private security contractors accountable under U.S. law."

Price spokesman Paul Cox said this morning that, "regardless of the views expressed in the Deputy Secretary's letter, it's up to the courts alone to determine whether these security contractors fall under federal criminal jurisdiction."

U.S. Rep. David Price isn’t saying who he supported to lead the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, has worked closely with Waxman on issues regarding private security contractors working in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Barb Barrett reports.

He also is a strong partisan who respects Democratic party rules. Those reward seniority.

Here’s what Price's spokesman, Paul Cox, had to say: "This internal party election was conducted through secret ballot."

Previously: Rep. Mel Watt backed John Dingell. 

Barack Obama is spending more on ads in North Carolina.

According to the latest figures from the Wisconsin Advertising Project, the Obama campaign spent $1.2 million in N.C. advertising between Sept. 28 and Oct. 4, while John McCain's campaign spent $148,000, Peter St. Onge reports.

That's about an 8-to-1 advantage in spending for Obama.

Nationwide, Obama spent roughly $17.4 million to McCain's $10.8 in the same time period. In 15 states the project labels as "battleground" — including North Carolina — the spending is closer, with Obama at $8.1 million to McCain's $6.5 million.

Of course, any political veteran will tell you money doesn't win elections, but it allows you to get more of your message out, unfiltered, and in Obama's case lets the campaign have a bit more control over how he is introduced to voters.

Obama N.C. campaign spokesman Paul Cox declined to talk about advertising strategy, but he said that Obama's success is due to more than money.

"One of our greatest sources of strength is our grassroots organization," says Cox, pointing to the campaign's 45 offices and 17,000 active volunteers in North Carolina. "We are reaching out to virtually every area of the state. It would be very difficult for the McCain campaign to catch up to us..."

The McCain campaign did not return a call for comment.

Barack Obama will practice for his next debate in Asheville.

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the Democratic presidential candidate will spend some time in Western North Carolina before his debate Tuesday in Nashville, Tenn.

Obama will spend "a couple of days" in the Asheville area, Obama spokesman Paul Cox told the paper.

"He needs to focus on his debate preparation, so we're not releasing the location," he said. 

John McCain has supported legislation that would enable children of illegal immigrants to attend college, says the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama.

McCain has co-sponsored The Dream Act in 2003, 2005, and 2007, which allows high school children of illegal immigrants to obtain permanent residency by attending college or serving in the armed forces, Rob Christensen reports.

During a visit to North Carolina over the week, Obama, an Illinois senator, said he favored allowing the children of illegal immigrants to attend community colleges.

The McCain campaign responded by saying it did not support amnesty or benefits, but did not specifically address the question of who can attend community colleges.

"The McCain campaign is trying to get away with something here," said Paul Cox, an Obama campaign spokesman. "They're trying to make voters think there is a distinction between the two candidates' positions where there is none."

Bill Bradley's trip to North Carolina was set up in the spring.

The former New Jersey senator will speak at N.C. State's Millennium Seminar Series and he will also campaign on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The seminar series is run by First Lady Mary Easley.

N.C. State spokesman Keith Nichols said that Bradley was booked in the spring and will only speak on the conflict in Georgia and Russia. He said it is "up to the speaker" if they want to do other events while in North Carolina.

Bradley is receiving about $350 for hotel and transportation and an honorarium of $5,000 paid for by funds raised for the series. His transportation costs do not include travel to and from the Obama event in Chapel Hill.

"We do not subsidize campaign events," Nichols said.

Paul Cox, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said that Bradley has been campaigning for Obama since the spring.

He said former Democratic Party executive director Ed Turlington, who has worked for Bradley in the past, got in touch with the Obama campaign to suggest that he do a campaign event while in town.

One of U.S. Rep. David Price's most visible staffers has joined the campaign of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Price spokesman Paul Cox, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, has taken a leave of absence from his Capitol Hill job to become Obama's statewide spokesman, Barb Barrett reports. He's already at work in North Carolina, including being quoted twice so far in Dome.

Cox will see his other boss Tuesday during an Obama campaign office opening in Cary. Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, is scheduled to speak.

If Barack Obama's making a feint, it's not working.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has devoted substantial resources to North Carolina, while Republican John McCain has pretty much sat the state out.

Obama has already opened 12 state offices so far and is adding Cary and Chapel Hill tomorrow.

According to the New York Times, Obama spent almost $2 million on ads in North Carolina between June 3 and July 26, while McCain has not spent any money.

Obama spokesman Paul Cox said that the campaign has had 93 organizational meetings that recruited over 3,000 volunteers here, with many concentrating on registering voters.

The one area where Obama has not put as much effort is personal visits. He came for a rally on June 9 after winning the nomination and had to postpone a visit to Charlotte after plane trouble.

McCain, meantime, came for a speech at Wake Forest University and several fundraisers in Charlotte in early May.

Still, Obama's starting to ramp up the visits by surrogates, bringing retired Army Major Gen. Geoffrey Lambert to Fayetteville tomorrow.

Some political observers — Dome included — had argued that Obama was making a play for North Carolina to draw out McCain's resources.

John McCain is not on the air in North Carolina.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has released a number of TV ads to the press in recent weeks, often noting that they are airing nationally and in battleground states.

To date, none of the ads has been aired specifically on local stations.

"We don't have any reports of him buying in North Carolina," said Paul Cox, a spokesman for Barack Obama's campaign.

Obama's campaign, meantime, is spending heavily on Tar Heel TV stations, airing three different ads since the May 6 primary on his biography, welfare reform and foreign policy.

That doesn't mean North Carolina voters aren't seeing McCain's ads, though. They are airing as part of national cable television buys and in press reports on the advertisements.

You won't see them on Dome, though. For now, our policy is not to write about TV ads that aren't specificially targeting North Carolina voters.