'DEADLINE' IS A STRONG TERM: The House and Senate missed their July 15 deadline to adopt a budget. So, proving that it's good to be the ones who make the laws, they gave themselves more time. Meanwhile, the state court system, unsure over whether it can make payroll next month, sure would like to see a budget.

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS: There's no budget yet, but that doesn't mean the House and Senate aren't working. Key votes came this week on bills to shore up the Beach Plan, to allow challenges of racism to death sentences and to stop requiring sexual assault victims to pay for rape kit exams.

SOFT ON CRIME?: Judges were in giving moods this week. First U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt released Sam Currin, a former judge, federal prosecutor and state Republican Party chairman, who had served a fraction of his sentence for money laundering and obstruction. Then Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens decided that former House Speaker Jim Black can serve his state time concurrently with his federal prison sentence.

IN OTHER NEWS: Attorney General Roy Cooper says he will work to get money that was diverted away from crime victims. Unemployment in North Carolina has hit African Americans especially hard. Attorney and Senate hopeful Kenneth Lewis has hired Joe Trippi, who ran John Edwards last presidential campaign to help with fundraising.

Sam Currin, a former judge, federal prosecutor and state Republican Party chairman, was ordered released from prison after serving a fraction of a nearly six-year sentence for money laundering and obstruction.

Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt made the order Monday. Federal prosecutors recommended in May that Currin, imprisoned since 2007, have his original 70-month sentence cut in half following his testimony against a co-conspirator, David A. Hagen.

Thomas Walker, one of Currin's defense attorneys, argued in court Monday that the fallen federal prosecutor and former state judge should be granted the kind of leniency he often opposed for criminals.

Walker asked the judge to reduce the sentence to 29 months to allow Currin, 60, to be home in Raleigh in time to see his son graduate from law school next year.

"He has suffered greatly," Walker said. "We're begging for the court's mercy."

Britt, who handed down Currin's original sentence and presided over the Hagen trial, went even further, commuting Currin's sentence to time served.

A Republican and close aide of the late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, Currin served from 1981 to 1987 as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, a jurisdiction that sweeps from Raleigh to the coast. He was a Superior Court judge from 1987 to 1990 and elected as the state's GOP chairman in 1996, serving until 1999.

At his sentencing in 2007, Currin admitted to laundering $1.3 million on behalf of Hagen, an e-mail spammer who authorities said ran one of the most prolific spamming operations in the world, peddling everything from mortgages to stock picks.

Hagen was convicted in May on three counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to 45 years. (N&O)

While Democrats may be counting the days until U.S. Attorney George Holding leaves, the Republicans are urging President Barack Obama to keep him on the job.

Holding, a Republican appointee, has prosecuted a series of Democrats and his office is now investigating allegations involving former Sen. John Edwards and former Gov. Mike Easley, both Democrats, Rob Christensen reports.

"Now is not the right time for a change in leadership at the U.S Attorney's office," said state GOP chair Linda Daves. "George Holding has shown himself to be competent, fair and evenhanded in rooting out and prosecuting corruption in state government."

U.S. attorneys are political patronage appointments that usually change hands when the White House changes parties. Holding, a protege of the late Sen. Jesse Helms, got his job after Bill Clinton left office and George W. Bush came in. (Frank Whitney preceded Holding as U.S attorney under Bush. He's now a federal district judge in Charlotte.)

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has appointed a panel, headed by former Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, to recommend federal prosecutors for the three districts in North Carolina. Hagan will recommended her choices to Obama.

But the state Republican Party argues that Holding doesn’t just go after Democrats. They note that he also prosecuted such Republicans as former U.S. Attorney Sam Currin and former state Sen. John Carrington.

What happens to former U.S. attorneys?

The federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of North Carolina have gone onto wildly different careers after leaving office. Below, a quick roundup:

George Anderson: (1977-1980) Now a Raleigh attorney with his own practice.

Sam Currin: (1981-1987) Nominated for a federal judgeship but never confirmed. Led N.C. Republican Party from 1996 to 1999. Now serving time at a federal prison in Massachusetts for money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Margaret Currin: (1988-1993) Professor at Campbell University's law school.

Janice McKenzie Cole: (1994-2001) Ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002. Now runs an immigration law firm in Hertford.

Frank Whitney: (2002-2005) Now a federal judge in the Western District based in Charlotte, a lifetime appointment.

The Eastern District U.S. attorney usually has a strong political patron.

For most of the last 20 years, the federal prosecutor in Raleigh appointed by the president has been closely tied to Sen. Jesse Helms, except during Democratic administrations.

Here is a list of former U.S. attorneys and their patrons:

George Anderson: (1977-1980) Backed by Democratic Sen. Robert Morgan; appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Sam Currin: (1981-1987) Former Helms aide. Backed by Helms; appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Margaret Currin: (1988-1993) The wife of the previous U.S. attorney. Backed by Helms; appointed by Reagan.

Janice McKenzie Cole: (1994-2001) Backed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton; appointed by President Bill Clinton. (No Democratic senator at that time.)

Frank Whitney: (2002-2005) Former Helms legislative counsel. Backed by Republican lawyer Tom Ellis, Helms' longtime political strategist; appointed by President George W. Bush.

George Holding: (2005-present) Former Helms aide and Whitney's No. 2 at U.S. attorney's office. Backed by Ellis; appointed by Bush.

If the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District were a hunter, he'd have some nice trophies.

Over the past eight years, federal prosecutors based in Raleigh have taken down some big Democratic game as part of their anti-corruption efforts.

A short list:

Meg Scott Phipps. The former Agriculture commissioner spent three years in prison for fraud and extortion over inappropriate use of campaign funds.

Jim Black. The former longtime speaker of the N.C. House is serving time for taking $29,000 in bribes from chiropractors who wanted him to push legislation.

Michael Decker. The former state representative is serving time for taking more than $63,000 in cash and campaign checks from Black to switch parties.

Frank Ballance. The former Congressman is serving time for diverting $100,000 in public money he helped direct to a nonprofit to his law firm, church and family.

Garey Ballance. The son of Rep. Ballance, a Democratic district court judge, served time for failing to report money he received from his father to buy a Lincoln Navigator.

Kevin Geddings. The former state lottery commissioner is serving time for failing to disclose that he worked for a lottery vendor when he took his seat.

The U.S. attorney's office may have also helped investigate former Rep. Thomas Wright, who was found guilty in state courts of improperly spending campaign donations, though it has never confirmed or denied the assistance.

Not all of their targets were Democrats, either. Federal prosecutors also put former state GOP chairman and former U.S. attorney Sam Currin in prison for laundering money for a client.

A former chairman of the N.C. Republican Party is going to prison.

Sam Currin, who served as a Superior Court Judge and a federal prosecutor, was sentenced to 70 months behind bars on money laundering and obstruction charges.

A protege of U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, Currin hasn't played a leading role in state politics since he was ousted as state chairman in 1999.

He pleaded guilty in November to federal charges that he conspired to launder about $1.3 million that a computer spam artist made. Prosecutors say he funneled money into his law firm's trust account and then lied about it to a grand jury. (N&O)