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It’s been a bad week for one prominent Madison County couple. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Thursday that the county’s tax administrator, Rodney Maney, was arrested Wednesday after SBI agents and sheriff’s deputies raided his house and found 5 ½ pounds of marijuana plants.

His wife, Susan Maney, is the chief probation officer for the mountain county, located at the far western edge of the state. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction said Friday that Susan Maney – who was not charged – has been administratively reassigned.

Pam Walker said no law enforcement agency has advised the department of any pending charges against her, but an internal investigation would take place. Walker said she couldn’t disclose where Susan Maney is now working.

LOWER UPPER CLASS: Republican Sen. Richard Burr and his Democratic challenger, Elaine Marshall, are both financially well off, but neither would likely earn a second glance in a Senate that has been called "the millionaire's club." (N&O)

PROBATION OFFICER BUSTED: A state probation officer has been charged with trying to illegally sell more than 100 prescription painkillers during an undercover sting. (N&O)

WAR DOCUMENTS DEBATE: The leak of classified military documents, unprecedented in scale, may reveal little new information, but is sure to re-ignite debate over the war in Afghanistan and renew tensions with Pakistan. (AP)

RIVALS NO MORE: Ken Lewis, the Chapel Hill lawyer who finished third in the Senate primary, endorsed his former opponent, Elaine Marshall, perhaps delivering African-American votes to her for the June 22 runoff with Cal Cunningham.

INSURANCE SMACKDOWN: Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin called an emergency news conference to fight a special provision in the Senate budget proposal that would strip him of his rate-making authority. The provision was shocking, he said, and happened "in the cover of darkness." Senate leader Marc Basnight said the idea came from his office but ended up in the budget legislation by mistake. The item was later removed.

WISE TO PRIVITIZE?  Two circulating proposals would outsource parts of the state's troubled mental health and probation systems. Lobbyists are pushing privatization, and legislators and state officials are listening. Skeptics say it's a bad idea.

IN OTHER NEWS: Former Department of Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett was issued a subpoena in the federal investigation into former Gov. Mike Easley's administration. The Senate budget proposal allows local school systems to furlough teachers. Odd couple: Former Gov. Jim Hunt and "American Idol" finalist Anoop Desai teamed up on a YouTube video to ask people to oppose cuts to the Smart Start early childhood education program.

RUN LIKE A BUSINESS: As North Carolina's leaders struggle to balance its budget, they are considering proposals to outsource parts of the state's troubled mental health and probation systems. (N&O)

COME ON DOWN: A former Southport mayor and a former top aide to former Gov. Mike Easley paid visits Wednesday to the federal building in downtown Raleigh, where a grand jury met. (N&O)

WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY: Both Democratic Senate candidates Cal Cunningham and Elaine Marshall have had to scrape to find enough money to finance their campaigns. (N&O)

N.C. Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer said state residents should be outraged that the administration of Gov. Bev Perdue hasn't filled probation officer jobs.

Fetzer was speaking at a rally in Pittsboro on Thursday, the same day a memorial garden was dedicated to Eve Carson, the slain UNC-Chapel Hill student body president. The men accused of killing her were on probation at the time and received scant, if any supervision.

When Perdue, a Democrat, took office, she promised to improve the probation system, Fetzer noted.

In December 2008, just before Perdue took office, there were 109 unfilled probation officer jobs. Officials have been hiring but there are still 118 vacant probation officer positions, an N&O story noted this week. Hiring has been slow in part because the jobs require a minimum of two years of related experience such as law enforcement, social work or military. 

Fetzer said in a state where unemployment is 11.2 percent, there is no reason why the jobs should be unfilled.

"This is an abomination and every citizen in North Carolina should be outraged about this," Fetzer said.

APPLICANTS WANTED: The state's crippled probation system is now hiring. But it hasn't done much to get out the word about open positions, and nearly all jobs require two years of experience in social work, the military or law enforcement, limiting the applicant pool. (N&O)

FOCUS ON KISSELL: As President Obama and Congressional Democrats prepare their final push on health care overhaul, House leaders scrambling for votes are expected to turn up the pressure on members like Larry Kissell.

But the Montgomery County Democrat, who bucked his leadership in November, is poised to do it again. (Charlotte Observer)

NO BENEFITS: State Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. didn't receive any favors in a plea deal reached last week for a shooting at his home in August 2009, a special prosecutor said Wednesday.

If fact, Soles may have only been charged because of his job at the legislature, James Coman, a special prosecutor said.

"In fact, the position he holds caused the state to dig in its heels and move forward," Coman said. "In light of everything, the best resolution was that he was going to have to be responsible. He owned up to that fact." (Fayetteville Observer)

IT'S A PRIORITY: Gov. Bev Perdue said that fixing the state's probation system remains high on her to-do list. Perdue was responding to a report in the N&O that showed that a year after the paper highlighted problems with the system, many jobs are still unfilled. (N&O)

SPARE A MILLION DIMES? The campaign committee of former Gov. Mike Easley is broke, according to a report filed late Friday.

The campaign spent $170,000 in the last half of 2009, mostly on lawyers who advised and defended the former two-term Democratic governor as the State Board of Elections investigated his activities.

Easley's campaign started 2009 with $427,700 in its account. It ended the year with just $4,465 on hand - and now lists more than $114,000 in debt to law firms. (N&O)

GLUTEN PATROL: When state officials sought to shut down a Durham food company last month for marketing bread as gluten-free that tested positive for gluten, cheers went up across the country among those suffering from celiac disease. (N&O)

KEEP 'EM COMING: A fervent customer base is driving sales at the top lottery retailers. Players have made the lottery a daily or even twice-daily habit. And stores have adapted their operations to serve them. No one surveys the lottery's customer base, so it has been difficult to say who is buying $1.4 billion worth of lottery tickets a year. (N&O)

BETTER RAP SHEETS: A handful of Wake County law enforcement and court officials are testing a new database for searching criminal histories. The system is a direct response to the 2008 shooting death of Eve Carson, the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president. The men accused of her killing were on probation. (N&O)

TAKE IT OUTSIDE: Nonsmokers cheered and smokers groused as the state's new smoking ban took effect over the weekend. (N&O)

Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger fires off the traditional Republican criticisms of the Democrats running the state as taxing too much, spending too much and holding office too long.

But he adds to that: messing up too much. Berger, who sat down with N&O editors Tuesday, rolled out his list of Democratic bumbling, such as a string of state officials, including a speaker of the House, sent to prison for corruption.

He highlights the state health plan's financial crisis that required a bailout, deaths and neglect in the mental health system, a probation system that lost track of parolees who went on to kill and what he sees as a history of budget mismanagement that has contributed to the state's current debacle.

"The Democrats have been given a pass on competence," Berger said. "They've not done a very good job over the past 10 or 12 years."

Berger acknowledged that, given that backdrop, Republicans fail to capitalize on those failings and win elections. He attributes that to a fundraising disparity, Democrats nominating solid candidates and national momentum behind Democrats in recent elections.

A bill that would give probation officers access to juvenile court records and broader leeway in doing warrantless searches sailed through the state Senate with little discussion.

The proposed bill, part of a probation system reform package recommended by Gov. Beverly Perdue, still must clear the House, Anne Blythe reports.

The proposal, introduced by Sen. Tony Rand, a Democrat from Fayetteville, comes after a series of articles in The News & Observer detailed a probation system rife with supervision problems.

High vacancies forced officers to carry perilously high caseloads, resulting in botched oversight of many cases and 13,000 missing offenders. Since 2000, 580 probationers killed while under state supervision. Since then, Perdue has made management changes. She also has recommended spending nearly $24.2 million over the next two years to hire 175 more officers.