Gov. Mike Easley is discussing foreclosure, education and the law this week.

According to a schedule provided by the governor's office today, Easley had several stops in Washington after going to an economic summit with President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia Tuesday.

During a three-hour stopover, he was interviewed by BBC America about the summit, met with state and federal education experts interested in the state's Learn and Earn and 21st Century Skills programs and met with 20 of his colleagues at the Democratic Governors Association.

Easley, a former North Carolina attorney general, is meeting today and tomorrow with the National Association of Attorneys General conference in Florida about the state's predatory lending laws and home foreclosure reduction laws, which other states are considering as a model.

He will make a formal speech in the morning.

"The National Association of Attorneys General winter conference is an all business, non-press event, which is why they asked the Governor not to publicize his speech," wrote spokeswoman Renee Hoffman in an e-mail to Dome.

She added that Easley reimburses the state for any trips "of a political nature."

Previously: Why is Easley stopping in D.C., Florida?

Gov. Mike Easley is on the road this week, but he won't say exactly why.

Easley took a state jet to Philadelphia yesterday for an economic summit with President-elect Barack Obama and other governors.

According to publicly available flight records, the Cessna Citation twin-jet plane left Philadelphia International at 1:33 p.m. for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

After a three-hour layover, the plane was scheduled to go to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., arriving later tonight. A flight plan filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce, also a public record, shows the plane won't leave Florida until 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Although the flight records are widely available on the Internet and through public records, spokeswoman Renee Hoffman would not discuss Easley's travel plans "for security reasons" and gave only a vague answer about his reasons for stopping in Washington and Florida.

"I can tell you that the governor is on a business trip to make a speech and attend a meeting," she said in an e-mail to Dome.

The flight plan shows Easley is traveling with executive counsel Ruffin Poole and a sergeant from the N.C. Highway Patrol.

State employees won't get their pay raises right away, but they will get them.

Because Gov. Mike Easley hasn't signed the state budget yet, some state agencies have not been able to include the 2.75 percent or $1,100 raises in the July paychecks.

Many state employees are paid monthly, so the delay means they will have to wait weeks to see their higher salaries. However, state agencies are on different schedules, so it may not affect some employees.

Spokeswoman Renee Hoffman said that the raises will be retroactive to July 1 and will be included in the August paychecks once the budget is signed. 

She also pointed out that it would not be the first time that raises were delayed, though in the past it was not because of Easley. Last year, the budget was not sent to the governor until July 30 and in 2005 it did not reach him until Aug. 11.

"This is an exercise that state employees who have been around for a while are used to," she said. 

About a fourth of callers to Gov. Mike Easley agree with his endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

In the 48 hours after Easley's endorsement became public, the governor's office received 482 calls on the issue, according to spokeswoman Renee Hoffman.

Of those, 112 were from callers who agreed with the endorsement and 360 were against it, either because they are for Barack Obama or they did not think Easley should endorse before the primary.

In addition, the governor's office received 683 e-mails about the issue. No breakdown is available on those e-mails because they are not automatically logged like the calls are.

"The e-mails that come in are put in a separate folder because they are of a political nature," said Hoffman. "We don't do politics on state time."

The numbers are as of 5 p.m. yesterday. 

Gov. Mike Easley's chief legal counsel today declined to comment on the letter he wrote this week saying that "absolutely no evidence" exists to support a former public affairs director's claim that the governor's communications staff directed public information officials in executive branch agencies to destroy e-mails after sending them to the governor's office.

In a brief interview, Chief Legal Counsel Reuben F. Young, declined to say whether the governor's press aides had denied telling the agency spokespeople to kill e-mails, or what he meant by saying there was no evidence it happened, reports Dan Kane.

Young repeatedly referred all questions to the governor's communications staff.

"I understand your question and I'm not giving you a hard time here," Young said. "I just want you to understand my response and that is I will refer you to the press office."

More after the jump.

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Seventeen municipal water systems have fewer than 100 days of water left.

State officials say that unless a drought ends soon, city and county systems — including Raleigh and Durham — may run low in the next three months.

Gov. Mike Easley has called for people to voluntarily cut their water use in half by Halloween.

But he's stopped short of using his executive powers to force cuts. For now, Easley is leaving the details up to local officials.

"There's no way to find that out unless we try this weeklong experiment with everyone pitching in," said spokeswoman Renee Hoffman. (N&O)