Police separated two groups organizing outside of U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan's office in Raleigh today while they were protesting health care reform.

The protest originally was organized by the national liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, which held protests at senators' offices across the country today. The protest of about 20 people was pushing for a public option in health care reform. The national group has been watching Hagan specifically.

Another group organized by NC Freedom, a conservative group, showed up to protest against MoveOn and the public option for health care.

The group's plan, according to its Web site, was to block out the health care protest. "We need to have number sufficient to encircle their entire group," the Web site says. After protesting at different ends of the sidewalk, the conservative group, which was larger and had more signs, surrounded the group from MoveOn.

Police said the two groups were blocking the courthouse's door, and moved them to different parts of the sidewalk outside of the courthouse. Officers said it was a judgment call to separate the two groups.

Correction: An earlier version of the post incorrectly said Hagan had not decided whether to support a public option. Hagan supports the public option proposed last week by the Senate health committee. That plan is known as the Community Health Insurance option.

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Charges against seven campus protesters will be heard in September after one had her case continued and the others rejected plea agreements this morning.

Haley Koch, a Morehead-Cain scholar, faces a charge of disturbing the peace for protesting former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo's speech April 14, Jesse DeConto reports.

Koch and another student held a banner in front of Riley Matheson, president of the campus chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, as he introduced Tancredo, a staunch opponent of mass immigration.

Her case and those of six other protesters in a second campus incident were scheduled for Orange County District Court this morning but will now be heard Sept. 14.

The other defendants protested at a speech by former U. S. Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia, who also favors stricter immigration policies, April 22.

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The largest gay rights rally in state history was organized on Facebook.

Will Elliott, a 35-year-old Durham resident, was upset about the passage of a California initiative banning gay marriage last November.

He contacted a national group planning protests about holding something in Raleigh, but when no one got back to him after a few days, he went online.

Late on a Sunday, Elliott invited about 50 friends to a Facebook Events page, then was stunned when more than 300 said they would come by mid-week.

"We kept having to call the state back to update our application" for a permit, he said.

On the day of the rally, more than 1,400 showed up despite driving rain. Elliott is now planning a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots through his Facebook group, NC against H8.

He said his group is a counterpart to the more staid Equality North Carolina.

"The civil rights movement of the '60s and '70s didn't just have the NAACP," he said.

BURR BURNED: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr doesn't have a Democratic opponent yet — unless you count left-leaning commentators. After the Winston-Salem Republican said he told his wife to take money out of the ATM during last fall's banking crisis, he was criticized by liberal talk show hosts Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and took heat from the Huffington Post.

BUDGET SIMMERS: The U.S. Senate was once described as the saucer used to cool hot bills from the House. It's apparently the other way in the state legislature, where chief budget writer Rep. Mickey Michaux said he'll take his time going over the budget bill rushed over from the Senate last week. Check back next week.

TAX DAY: Thousands of protesters gathered across North Carolina on Wednesday to protest the bank bailouts and the size of the federal budget. The so-called Tea Party protests were tied to the date federal income taxes are due. Meantime, the state Department of Revenue said it was running a few weeks behind in sending out tax refunds.

IN OTHER NEWS: A group of Republicans started Carolina Strategy Group to poll voters on state issues and work with business clients. ... Former Congressman and illegal immigration opponent Tom Tancredo was driven out of UNC-Chapel Hill by angry protesters. ... The state House narrowly approved a bill adding a comprehensive sex education option to public schools and passed a major fix to the State Health Plan that will reduce benefits for state workers.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick said she was encouraged by the tea parties.

The Charlotte Republican spoke to an anti-tax protest sponsored by Freedomworks on April 4 and a second event run by a grassroots group in Monroe yesterday.

She was also invited to a tea party in Columbia, S.C., last night, but could not attend.

At both events, Myrick spoke for about 10 minutes about her concerns about the rising deficit and increased federal spending. She said she stressed that there was "blame to go around" for both Democrats and Republicans on the problem.

"When Republicans were in charge, they spent too much money, too," she said.

She said the events were a "real cross section" of Americans who are not normally involved in government.

"It was citizens who are very concerned," she said. "That's what was encouraging to me because it was grassroots America of all ages." 

Protesters gathered across North Carolina on Tax Day.

As Americans turned in their federal income taxes, about 250 people gathered outside the federal courthouse in Raleigh, and hundreds more at the state capitol to protest taxes and government bailouts. (N&O)

About 200 gathered at the Eden boat landing, while more than 1,000 showed up in downtown Greensboro.

Many protesters said they'd never been to a similar event in their lives. They criticized high taxes, protested corporate bailouts and bemoaned the size of the federal government. (GN-R)

Two protests were held within a block of one another at noon in Fayetteville, where a group also protested the county's property tax revaluations. (Fay-O)

Protesters will gather around North Carolina today.

The Tax Day Tea Party events will protest government bailouts and record federal spending, among other issues, in 30 locations around the state.

An event in Charlotte is expected to draw 1,000, including Republican Rep. Sue Myrick. Another event in Edenton will draw on a 1774 protest in that city. Protests are also planned for Raleigh, Greensboro and Asheville.

The events are being coordinated in North Carolina in part by Americans for Prosperity, a small-government advocacy group. Grassroots volunteers have also set up Facebook pages and used Twitter to promote the events.

Staffers from the John Locke Foundation and the Civitas Institute will also speak at several events.

A group of Republican activists will protest Vance-Aycock.

The Carolina Stompers, a recently created group in Asheville, plans to protest the annual Democratic event for honoring former Democratic Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock.

Aycock, as reported extensively in this series, played a role in the Wilmington coup in 1898.

Chad Nesbitt, an Asheville radio and TV producer and stepson of Democratic Sen. Martin Nesbitt, predicted more than 120 people will come to the protest, to be held at the corner of Charlotte and Macon streets, just down the road from the Grove Park Inn.

Nesbitt, who is white, said he was upset that Democrats have apologized for their role in the race riots but continue to honor Aycock with the name of the dinner, which has been held since 1960.

"They're still honoring a white supremacist," he said.

No word yet on if the group plans to protest Thomas Jefferson's ownership of slaves or Andrew Jackson's treatment of American Indians at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

It's always hard to say how many people will show up for a protest, but technology is helping.

For example, Dome received an announcement today of a demonstration outside the Civitas Institute's leadership conference Saturday as part of a national event.

The GrassRoots Impeachment Movement and the Durham and Raleigh Impeachment Meetup groups plan to call on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole to "be a true patriot" and vote to impeach the president and vice president.

"If Senator Dole were a true conservative and a patriot, she would put aside partisan politics and would ask Speaker Pelosi to put impeachment back on the table," the press release notes.

So how many people have signed up so far? From Raleigh, three people have said yes, and one has said maybe. From Durham, one person has said yes.