* U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge will speak at the Campbell University commencement. He is an alumnus of the college.

* Liberal blogger Rob Schofield notes a mixed message from the North Carolina chamber about whether workers should have sick days.

* Legislators send a bill to limit local governments that want to provide Internet access to residents to committee to be studied.

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx sends a letter to the mother of Matthew Shepard apologizing for her comments about his death, hate crimes bill passes. 

A progressive group is hoping to land the first punch in the budget fight.

The N.C. Budget and Tax Center issued a report today arguing that spending has actually decreased in North Carolina since the start of the 1999 fiscal year.

With the state facing a budget shortfall that Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue says could be as large as $3 billion, legislators will soon begin considering spending cuts.

But the Budget and Tax Center report says that per capita spending has dropped $19 per person since 1999 when adjusted for inflation.

"North Carolina's population has grown by an estimated 1.3 million people, or 17 percent since 2000," writes Meg Gray Wiehe, the report's author. "However, state spending has not kept up with population growth over the past decade."

The report also finds that the proportion of general fund appropriations to the state's total personal income has also decreased, from 7 percent in 1999 to 6.7 percent this year.

Rob Schofield, policy director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch think tank, said that his group will push for comprehensive reforms, such as broadening the sales tax to include services, rather than simply across the board spending cuts.

"We'll be making the point that this is a revenue crisis and not a spending crisis," he said.