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Two prison officials have been promoted in the state Department of Public Safety.

Joe Prater will be deputy commissioner for administration and George Solomon will be director of prisons. They were named by Correction Commissioner David Guice.

Prater has been acting prisons director since January, and before that he was assistant section chief for prisons. He spent eight years in community corrections, and before that worked in local government and private sector jobs.

Solomon supervised prisons in the Piedmont and central part of the state, and was also a prison superintendent, deputy warden, assistant chief of security and correctional officer.

A married pair of state prison workers from Warsaw have been arrested on felony tax charges, the state Department of Revenue reported Wednesday.

Andrew Riddick, 51, a correctional sergeant, and Sharon Sutton Riddick, 55, a staff nurse, both worked at Duplin Correctional Center in Kenansville. They were reassigned on Wednesday to other prisons while an internal investigation gets under way, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety said.

Both were charged with 12 counts of attempt to evade or defeat tax. Arrest warrants allege the Riddicks fraudulently claimed they were exempt from state income tax withholding from 1999 to 2010.

The couple appeared before a magistrate in Wake County and each was placed under a $30,000 bond. The case was investigated by an agent with the criminal investigations section of the state revenue department.

Sharon Riddick has been reassigned to a prison in Greenville, and her husband to one in Burgaw. They will not have any contact with inmates during the investigation, the public safety department reported.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed another batch of bills Friday afternoon leaving five remaining unsigned bills on her desk.

The six remaining are:

HB 104: Clarifies which documents produced by lawmakers are exempt from the public records law. Would make requests by lawmakers sent to state agencies exempt from the public records law.

HB 945: The Studies Act of 2009 catalogues a host of items and issues to be studied while the legislature is out of session.

HB 1166: Insurance Law Changes. Makes several changes including a new requirement that to get a license, insurance agents must submit fingerprints for a criminal background check.

SB 947: Provides more opportunity for a homeowner to halt foreclosure if he or she can demonstrate they can pay what is owed.

HB 836: Makes technical corrections to the state budget.

HB 1329: Consolidates various state stautes regulating criminal record expunctions. 

Among the 40-plus Perdue signed Friday are:

SB 167: Prohibits tobacco products and cell phones in prisons. Makes it a crime to provide tobacco or cell phones to inmates.

HB 667: Allows wineries to sell wine during business hours.

SB 138: Bans the recreational use of salvia divinorum, an hallucinogenic herb. Still allows the mint-like plant to be used in landscaping.

SB 786: Authorizes capital projects on University of North Carolina system campuses. The projects have a funding stream to repay debt for the projects. List includes $21.8 million for a parking deck at N.C. State University, a $10 million renovation of the Carolina Inn at UNC-Chapel Hill, $35 million for a Partnership, Outreach and Research for Accelerated Learning Building at UNC-Charlotte.

SB 464: Requires statistics on race to be kept to help identify and prevent racial profiling by law enforcement. Also requires that a law enforcement officer ensure a child is in safe hands if the child's parent gets arrested. The last provision would have prevented a case last year in which three children were stranded on Interstate 85 in the middle of the night for eight hours when a sheriff's deputy arrested the children's mother, an illegal immigrant.

Correction: Perdue had six bills to sign, not five as we previously reported. Dome regrets the oversight. 

A bill that would ban the possession and use of tobacco products and cell phones in state prisons received final legislative approval today and is on its way to the governor's desk.

The prison smoking ban comes at the request of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, which asked that a statewide smoking ban in some public areas be extended to prisons.

The cell phone component grew out of a story in The News & Observer that highlighted problems that have occurred in North Carolina and other states when inmates have used cell phones to set up attacks on each other, coordinate escapes and continue to run illegal enterprises outside of prison.

The ban passed the House on Wednesday despite objections that it was another blow to the tobacco industry, which has taken major hits this year with the statewide ban in bars and restaurants and a tax increase in the state budget.

* Game on: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee puts out first Web video targeting U.S. Sen. Richard Burr; hits ATM comments.

* Burr's consultant, Paul Shumaker, estimates the race may end up costing a total of $60 million, says Burr is ready for fight. 

* Bicycles may soon be required to have lights on both the front and the back under a Senate bill that passed committee.

* Conservative blogger Joe Guarino thinks U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan should not sign onto a study of the nation's criminal justice system.

About one in five name change requests in Alexander County come from inmates.

Longtime Superior Court Clerk Seth Chapman told Dome that he gets between 10 and 20 requests from inmates of the Alexander Correctional Institute out of about 50 a year.

The reasons given vary: Some say they never used their birth name, others cite religious reasons.

Chapman said that he already turns down a substantial number of the requests based on the state law that requires petitioners be "of good character." Often, other inmates are given as character references.

"The simple fact that you're in prison speaks to me about your character," he said.

He said he considers felony convictions for murder, rape and robbery more serious when considering name changes than driving while intoxicated.

Chapman supports a bill from Rep. Ray Warren that would shift the burden of proof to the prisoner away from the clerk.

A bill would make it harder for prisoners to change their names.

Rep. Ray Warren, an Alexander County Democrat, said he filed the bill after hearing from several Superior Court clerks about problems with inmates changing their names.

"It creates a problem with tracking, with paperwork and with record-keeping," he said. "This bill is meant to curtail that somewhat."

The bill would not ban name changes outright, but it would "reverse the burden of proof" from the clerk to the prisoner, Warren said. Prisoners who wanted to change their name for religious reasons, for example, could still do so if they showed a good reason.

He said the problem is particularly pronounced in counties with large prisons.

Three of Warren's co-sponsors, Reps. Pat Hurley, Shirley Randleman and Timothy Spear, are former Superior Court clerks.

Under state law, sex offenders are already barred from changing their names.

State prisoners eat a lot of canned vegetables.

They also get a lot of apple sauce, spaghetti, beans and fruit cocktail.

A new database of state contracts includes a category for food purchased by the state Department of Correction.

It shows a menu familiar to anyone who ever attended middle school.

In general, the contracts show an attempt to be healthy, if not necessarily Atkins-friendly. The canned vegetables are undermined by contracts for chocolate pudding, all kinds of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and gelatin.

Inmates apparently get individual packs of ketchup, mustard and French dressing as well.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed cutting prison beds.

To help deal with the state's budget crisis, Perdue this week proposed closing five prisons, a prison hospital and a halfway house for women that are inefficient.

The cuts would save $25 million over the next two years, but they would also eliminate space for 1,031 inmates at a time when the system could see an additional 2,300 inmates.

Prison officials say they'll double up cells and put beds in day rooms. But the closures will put a crunch on a system with 40,644 inmates, slightly above capacity.

Some legislators are calling for reducing sentences, but Perdue said she's not ready.

"I would like a discussion some time about what other states are doing," she said. "I know after a decade there needs to be a very open public discussion about whether we invest more in community placement and education opportunities." (N&O)

Gov. Beverly Perdue's budget is not as drastic as some feared.

Her initial $21 billion proposal would raise taxes on smoking and drinking, cut as many as 268 state employees and shuffle more than 1,000 more, eliminate 20 smaller programs, close seven prisons and increase per-pupil spending. (N&O)

It also expands the Earned Income Tax Credit, makes bonuses to veterans tax-free, extends some business tax deductions and increases licensing and vital records fees. (N&O)

Legislative leaders say the plan is a good starting point, though they cautioned that tobacco and alcohol taxes as well as an accounting change may be a tough sell to lawmakers.

"I don't think you'll see a lot of differences with what she's proposed," said Senate leader Marc Basnight. (GN-R)

State employees are relieved the proposal avoids furloughs, pay cuts and massive layoffs. (Times-News) But tobacco and alcohol interests say the taxes would hurt their industries and put jobs at risk. (Times-News)

Politicians from the rural areas served by the seven prisons also object. (AP)