* N.C. Transportation Secretary Gene Conti pushes federal government for more high-speed rail north and south of the Triangle.

* Liberal commentator Chris Fitzsimon says the big story of the week was spending targets set by House budget writers behind the scenes.

* Greensboro News-Record columnist Doug Clark thinks the Racial Justice Act is just an attempt to do away with the death penalty. 

* The Terri Schiavo Act had its name changed in committee to the Advanced Directives on Drivers License bill. 

North Carolinians could use their driver's licenses to tell doctors that they have a living will under a bill approved by the Senate Thursday.

The legislation, sponsored by Union County Republican Sen. Eddie Goodall, would allow driver's license holders to indicate on their license whether they have a living will on file with the Secretary of State.

That would alert doctors who might be treating license holders that they have left specific instructions as to whether to keep them alive with life support devices.

The bill is called the Terri Schiavo Act, named after the Florida woman at the center of a seven-year legal battle by her husband to disconnect her from life support after she was diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state. In 2005, her feeding tube was removed and she died of dehydration.

Not sure what to name your bill?

Here's a well-worn technique: Name it for someone.

So far this session, three bills have been introduced in the legislature that are named for people or animals:

Davie's Law/Humane Euthanasia in Shelters: Prohibits animal shelters from using gas chambers for euthanasia. Named for a puppy who survived a gas chamber and was found in the Davie County landfill.

Jeanne Hopkins Lucas Act: Allows Durham police and sheriff's deputies to increase their retirement pension if they have received certain training. Named for a Durham state senator who died in 2007.

The Terri Schiavo Act: Studies whether the Department of Motor Vehicles should ask drivers whether they have a living will. Named for a Florida woman with brain damage who became the center of a national fight.

For this technique to work, it generally requires a certain level of awareness of the namesake to work. Both Davie and Terri Schiavo have been in the news, while Lucas was a former colleague of many legislators.

A bill would look into asking you about end-of-life plans at the DMV.

Sen. Eddie Goodall, a Union County Republican, said he filed the bill to try to prevent situations like the Terri Schiavo case, in which the husband and parents of a Florida woman in a vegetative state fought over whether to keep her on life support.

Goodall wants to study whether the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles should ask drivers whether they have an advance directive or living will when they renew their driver's license.

The state would not advocate for or against having a living will or what it should say, but the response would be noted on licenses.

That would help family members determine if they should keep searching for a living will and might encourage some who don't have one to look into it, Goodall said.

"I've talked to a lot of nurses and people in palliative care," he said. "They say there's a big need for more education about living wills becaues families go through misery trying to make these end-of-life decisions.

"It would make it much easier if their loved one made the decision for them."