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The N.C. NAACP on Thursday will protest policy actions by the General Assembly that negatively impact African-Americans, minorities and the poor.

Rev. Dr. William Barber, the group's president, said in a press release that the General Assembly has presented "a slew of regressive pieces of legislation."

The N.C. Court of Appeals will hear arguments Tuesday in a case that could shape the future of the state’s pre-kindergarten education for poor children. In the latest chapter of a long-running school quality lawsuit, the Attorney General’s Office will square off against lawyers representing five poor counties on whether last year’s legislative changes to the state’s prekindergarten program violate the constitutional right to a sound, basic education for all North Carolina schoolchildren. Read more here.

More political headlines:

--Republican lawmakers are renewing a push for a compromise measure that would require voters to show identification at the polls, conceding that voiding a veto of a tougher bill is unlikely. In a briefing at the state GOP convention, House Speaker Thom Tillis also offered a roadmap to the legislative session.

The boisterous clanking of wooden spoons on pots and pans could be heard for several blocks from the Legislative Building as the legislature convened for its first day of its short session. (Caution: Video is loud.)

More than one hundred citizens gathered in front of the Legislative Building to voice and bang out their frustration with fracking, marriage amendment and worker's rights.

"No matter what issue brought us here, we are standing together," announced MaryBe McMillan, the Secretary-Treasurer of the North Carolina American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Americans for Prosperity is offering a solution to lawmakers as protesters plan to descend on the statehouse Wednesday, banging pots and pans to make the opening of the session.

"We will be offering state workers, tourists and lawmakers 'NC Real Solutions ear plugs' to drown out the noise from these groups," a press released from the conservative group states.

(Insert joke about tone-deaf lawmakers here.)

And AFP hopes any lawmakers with earplugs will take them out at a certain point -- because they have an agenda to advocate, too. "We will be encouraging lawmakers to continue to focus on the real solutions offered by the bi-partisan state budget that not only closed the $3 billion budget deficit but also added state-funded teacher positions and lowered taxes," the statement reads. They will also "thank lawmakers for offering real solutions without increasing taxes.” 

You know the Republican-dominated state legislature is back in town when the first protest blossoms like springtime foliage. Greeting the General Assembly when it returns next week will be a noisy protest by labor and other groups, scheduled for Wednesday morning on Bicentennial Mall.

The clamorous "Pots & Spoons" demonstration is meant to raise a racket in the tradition of “cacerolazo” – a form of protest in some Spanish-speaking countries. They plan to bang their pots for 15 minutes straight to drown out the “corporate lobbyists and the right-wing ‘crazy train’” inside the state house.

Organizing the event are the N.C. State AFL-CIO, MoveOn.Org, Action NC, Triangle Jobs with Justice and others.

The number lawmakers who attended Monday's legislative mini-session barely outnumbered the protesters who came to chat slogans and decry the Republican agenda.

The roughly 30 demonstrators rallied outside about an assortment of issues, from fracking to high college tuition, before marching inside to meet with House Speaker Thom Tillis -- repeating a scene from February when Capitol Police cited an obscure rule invoked by Tillis' staff to remove visitors from the second floor of the statehouse.

Tillis did not attend the legislative session. His staff promised demonstrators a meeting within a month and they left a hefty stack of letters protesting the GOP's tenure.

"He won't even come to his own special session," said Gerrick Brenner, who leads Progress NC, a liberal advocacy group. "Just garbage. Just garbage."

A group opposed to the marriage amendment will march from N.C. State University to the state legislature Thursday, with organizers promising "several thousand" participants.

The march is organized by HonestNC, a group of community organizers from the university. Organizer Matt Huffman said the demonstrators oppose "adding discrimination to the state's founding documents ... hits right at the heart of our idea of civil unity and threatens the core legitimacy of our social mores."

After the march, the group will gather for a rally on Halifax Mall to "show our representatives in state legislature that citizens of the populace will not stand idly by while civil rights are cut off from a portion of our group," the announcement says.

The local affiliate of the liberal group MoveOn will hold a rally Thursday outside Obama's campaign headquarters in Raleigh to ask the president to take a tougher stance against large banks.

The "Yes He Can" event is part of a national effort to ask President Barack Obama to order investigations of the banks' involvement in the housing crisis and reject an immunity agreement. "Participants will call on President Obama to stand with the 99 percent," the group said in a statement. The 4:30 p.m. event is at the Organizing for American office at 130 E. Morgan St. 

A chorus of 50 protesters chanting slogans and banging drums provided a soundtrack for this evening's legislative session in Raleigh.

Authorities escorted lawmakers through the so-far peaceful crowd that came to protest Senate Bill 709, the Energy Jobs Act, which would pave a way for offshore oil drilling and shale gas extraction through a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Republicans leaders pledged not to hold an override vote on the bill -- which Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed earlier this year -- but some in the crowd were skeptical.

"They've said things (like that) before and we want them to know how we feel right now," said Ruth Zalph, 81, of Chapel Hill.

Zalph slung a drum over her shoulder and marched around the legislative building chanting, "Toxic water, toxic air; we get sick and they don't care."

The bill would not allow fracking but even a study of the practice worried the environmentalists. "We have seen in other states what happened with fracking," Zalph said. "Why study what we already know. It's a waste of time."

A group called NCFreedom plans a protest at the legislature Wednesday as state lawmakers convene for the short session.

Tea Party groups and conservative activists plan to march on the legislative building and demand a floor vote for proposed legislation that would exempt North Carolina businesses and citizens from having to participate in the federal government's health care plan. The coalition plans a series of events, according to NCFreedom's Web site.

The group is calling on protesters to surround the legislative building on Jones Street and "peacefully demand that the bills be brought to a floor vote."

The group's site urges "patriot groups" to "help us become the next state to assert our Constitutionally guaranteed rights under the 10th amendment."