Gov. Beverly Perdue said today that work will soon begin on a $56 million building in West Raleigh to house the National Guard, the Highway Patrol and the state Division of Emergency Management.

The project, which will be largely financed by federal stimulus money, would create up to 4,200 new jobs, Perdue said.

"This project is a big win for North Carolina," Perdue said in a statement. "It provides a state of the art facility that will better coordinate key state services and is ready to put people to work in much needed jobs."

Bidding on the project will begin next week and could start as early soon as early this summer. It could be finished in two years, Rob Christensen reports.

About $41.5 million in funding will become from the federal stimilus package. The remainder will come from general and highway trust funds that had been set aside for the project.

U.S. Rep. David Price, one of the House appropriation committee chairs, worked on helping getting funding on the project.

"Today's announcement comes at the end of a long and sometimes difficult process," Price said. "As the highest priority new construction project in the country for the National Guard, the Joint Force Headquarters is undisputedly deserving of this significant funding."

The new 237,000 square-foot facility will be located on an 18-acre site off of District Drive in Raleigh, near Wade Avenue.

* WUNC reporter Laura Leslie defends N&O ombudsman taking job at state agency, arguing that he's an "excellent communicator" in a tough industry.

* Schools Superintendent June Atkinson tells Fayetteville Observer she has no plans to sue the state over her job description.

* Conservative activist Francis De Luca argues that Rev. William Barber of the state chapter of the NAACP should have to register as a lobbyist.

* The president of the state Bankers Association is pushing to rename Raleigh-Durham International Airport after the Wright Brothers.

The Raleigh-Durham International Airport spent $4,500 on President Bush.

Airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said that the extra costs for law enforcement and administrative duties during Bush's June fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Pat McCrory were at the higher end for a high-profile visit.

She said a quick stop by a presidential candidate or April's visit by Vice President Dick Cheney typically costs several thousand dollars, but the higher cost was due to the size of the motorcade, the needs of Air Force One and Secret Service requests.

Taxpayers did not really foot the bill for the costs. The airport's roughly $80 million budget comes from contracts with airlines and vendors, though it receives $12,500 apiece from Wake and Durham counties and the cities of Raleigh and Durham.

Raleigh police did not spend extra. Spokesman Jim Sughrue said they rearrange policing schedules to provide security for high-profile visitors to avoid overtime expenses since they are routine in the capital, though that means fewer cops were on the beat the rest of the week.

Gov. Mike Easley's plane just landed in Southport.

After attending an economic summit held by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in Chicago this morning, Easley flew back to the Brunswick County airport on a state-owned Cessna Citation Bravo, Ben Niolet reports.

Spokesman Seth Effron said that Easley does not have any public events scheduled "at this time" down East this weekend, so he will reimburse the state for the flight.

"The taxpayers will not pay any expenses related to this travel," he said.

Easley left Raleigh-Durham International airport at 4 p.m. Thursday for Chicago Midway International and landed at 2:25 p.m. today in Brunswick County. 

Pat McCrory criticized a Superior Court judge Wednesday for ruling last week that four sex offenders shouldn't be subject to lifetime satellite monitoring.

McCrory, Charlotte's mayor and a Republican candidate for governor, called on the state to appeal the judge's ruling, David Ingram reports.

"Every day the attorney general delays appealing this case, more children are in danger," he said.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper did not have an immediate comment.

Judge Ripley Rand ruled in Wake County that the sex offenders shouldn't be monitored because they were sentenced before the monitoring law took effect Dec. 1. He did not address constitutional questions of double punishment.

McCrory's comments came at a news conference at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, one of seven stops planned for a trip across the state Wednesday.

More after the jump.

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New Hanover County politicians also don't worry about airport parking.

The Wilmington International Airport provides free passes to its employee parking lot for the five county commissioners, state Sen. Julia Boseman and state Reps. Danny McComas, Thomas Wright, Carolyn Justice and Bonner Stiller.

Airport Director Jon Rosborough said he would give the passes to federal officials as well, but so far none have asked.

"They're not down here very often," he said.

The passes save the politicians the cost of parking at the airport, which will soon rise to $14 a day in its short-term lot and $8 a day in its long-term lot. Employees pay $10 a month for parking.

Rosborough said he did not know how often they are used or when the program started. He said the airport authority does not report them as in-kind contributions.

As noted earlier, the Piedmont Triad International Airport has some reserved spots for federal politicians. The Raleigh-Durham International Airport, meantime, said it has no designated spaces.