U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan seems to be keeping her options open when it comes to health care legislation before Congress.

Hagan, a Democrat from Greensboro, supports a Senate bill that includes an option for people to purchase insurance from a government-backed plan called a community health initiative.

But asked if she thought such as public option was necessary for the public health care overhaul, Hagan replied: "I am going to have to wait and see what the Finance Committee puts forward from the cost standpoint to really analyze that."

"At the end of the day, I think we are going to have health care reform," Hagan told reporters Thursday afternoon after touring SAS, a Cary software company, reports Rob Christensen.

Hagan also seemed to be open to the alternative idea of allowing the states to set up health care co-ops patterned after electric co-ops. She said she had given that idea some thought several months ago and noted that Sen. Kent Conrad, a key committee chairman, favored the idea.

"Having been a state senator for 10 years," Hagan said, "I think states can do a good job at that. It is something I would look at if that was an option that came forward."

Software for the state's probation system is rooted in the 1980s.

Despite North Carolina's abundance of high-tech companies such as SAS, Red Hat and Lenovo, probation officers spend hours each month looking up clients on a computer system that predates Windows and does not even have a mouse.

Until last month, there was no simple way for a probation officer to check whether new criminal charges have been filed against any of the 114,000 probationers under their watch.

An N&O investigation turned up hundreds of cases where probation offiers lost track of criminals who were violating probation — and then were charged with murder, rape and other serious crimes.

For 14 years, state officials have vowed to fix the patchwork of computer systems that were supposed to help law enforcement keep track of criminals. But a special committee set up in 1994 fixed only one of five problems it identified. (N&O)