The GOP candidates took different tacks on how the government could reduce preventable diseases at a debate tonight.

Fred Smith said the government should encourage people to have a healthy lifestyle and get regular physical exams, but the responsibility should be on the individual.

"We've got to take responsibility for our lifestyle," he said.

Bill Graham said that public schools should offer more nutritious food in cafeterias, and the state should reduce air pollution that leads to asthma.

"The main aggravator is simply the environmental pollutants we have coming out of our coal-fired plants and a lot of the other industries that we've had," he said.

Pat McCrory agreed that responsibility should be on the individual, but the government should provide cost incentives for choosing healthy lifestyle options.

"We in state government can promote healthy citizens throughout North Carolina by giving tax breaks, especially to small business who promote preventative care for their employees," he said.

Bob Orr cited the Asheville Project, a city program that successfully lowered health care costs by giving incentives to the workers who were costing the most.

"What I'd like to see is to take this program, which private enterprise has also been experimenting with, and take it in to state government," he said.

A three-judge panel ruled that North Carolina can sue the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The panel in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the TVA's motions to dismiss a lawsuit that demands the utility clean up its power plants and reduce air pollution.

North Carolina sued the TVA in 2006, claiming that thousands of North Carolina residents suffered ill health from pollution blowing across the mountains from TVA coal plants in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The lawsuit also argues the pollution has hurt North Carolina's environment and economy.

"Clean air is critical to our health and our economy," Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement. "This ruling clears the way for us to to make TVA clean up its pollution that's dirtying our air and making North Carolinians sick."

TVA disputes the claims. (N&O)