The state will allow parents to decide whether their children should learn more about sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptiion than is typically taught in public schools under a bill that passed the House in a 60-55 vote Thursday.

The bill, which now goes to Gov. Beverly Perdue for her signature, schools would continue to offer sex ed that stresses abstinence, Lynn Bonner reports.

But beginning in 2010, schools must also include information on STDs, the safety and effectiveness of all FDA approved contraceptive methods in preventing pregancy, and information on sexual assault, sexual abuse and risk reduction. Parents who do not want their children to learn more than the abstinence-based curriculum can remove them from that part of the course.

The additional instruction would end the state policy enacted in 1995 that required an abstinence-based curriculum. To teach comprehensive sex education, school districts must go through a public deliberation that includes a hearing and a public examination of instructional materials.

The state Senate has reworked a public school sex education bill from the House that had given parents the choice between two levels of explanation.

The measure for students in grades seven through nine was approved Wednesday by the Senate Mental Health and Youth Services Committee, the Associated Press reports.

It would require all school systems to offer curricula promoting sexual abstinence outside of marriage. Districts also would be required to offer an optional program focusing on the effectiveness of contraceptives and preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Rep. Susan Fisher of Buncombe County is the sponsor of the House version of the bill. She says the House version would make it more likely for students to get more accurate information about sex.

The bill now goes to the full Senate.

Legislative Republican leaders are preparing for big fights this week over two battleground bills.

The Healthy Youth Act, which allows parents to choose between "abstinence only" and "comprehensive" sex ed programs, is scheduled for a hearing in a Senate committee. The bill previously cleared the House. 

The School Violence Prevention Act, which seeks to stop bullying in schools is set to be heard in House committees. Republicans object to the bill because it defines classes of victims and includes actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

"These bills are part of the radical left's social agenda and show how legislative Democrats have abandoned traditional North Carolina values," Sen. Phil Berger, the Senate minority leader, said.

House minority leader Rep. Paul Stam said Republicans will try to amend the bullying bill so that it states flatly that all bullying is wrong without classes of victims.

* Greensboro attorney Locke Clifford suspiciously steps down from a panel advising Sen. Kay Hagan on potential U.S. attorney appointments.

* Senate committee considers rolling back sex ed bill to give parents the option to opt their kids in to comprehensive class instead of opting out.

* N.C. GOP chairman candidate Chad Adams did not like Rob Christensen's Sunday column, demands an apology to former Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

* N.C. State University's chancellor and provost will appear before a grand jury this week, making it clear its probing former Gov. Mike Easley.

Most parents want sex ed taught in schools, according to a  poll conducted by the Survey Research Unit of the Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina.

More than 90 percent of parents want sex education taught in public schools; 93.5 percent said public health professionals should decide what's taught in those classes, Lynn Bonner reports.

Close to 100 percent of parents said teaching students how sexually transmitted diseases are passed on and prevented, and how to deal with pressure to have sex were important topics for the classroom, according to the survey completed last month.

The poll, commissioned by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, is an update of a 2003 survey sponsored by the state Department of Public Instruction.

The pregnancy prevention campaign supports House bill 88, which would allow parents to choose whether their children should receive what is now the standard abstinence-based sex ed, more comprehensive sex ed, or no sex ed in school.

The bill has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.

* N.C. Republican Party chair candidate Chad Adams to have a meet-in-greet Wednesday in Raleigh at the home of Pat McCrory's sister.

* House Speaker Joe Hackney tells legislators they're going to have to stick around on Friday to get work done before crossover.

* Sex ed bill briefly delayed by Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools, which have a more progressive policy that they want grandfathered in.

* Gov. Beverly Perdue lobbies Democratic Party chair to bring the 2012 national convention to Charlotte; first state to express interest.

While legislators are debating what kind of sex education public schools should teach, the country is talking about a program that gives students answers to teens' questions about sex by text message.

After the New York Times published a story Sunday about the Birds and Bees Text Line, run by the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina, the phone started ringing with interview requests, Lynn Bonner reports.

Look for staff members talking about sex ed by text message Wednesday on Fox and Friends, the Today Show on NBC, and the Early Show on CBS, said pregnancy prevention campaign director Kay Phillips.

The office, based in Durham, has had requests for information about the text line from other states. At least a few states asked if they could forward their teens' questions to North Carolina, Phillips said.

The answer was no, but the office is willing to teach other states how to set up their own text lines, she said.

* Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards' troubles had a silver lining: Book pre-sales for wife Elizabeth shot up on Amazon.

* Capitol Monitor starts its own Web site on state stimulus money, including this handy chart tracking spending and potential conflicts.

* Liberal polling guru Nate Silver says Sen. Richard Burr's seat is seventh most likely to flip in the 2010 elections.

* A different kind of sexting: North Carolina teen-agers send text messages to Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign, get answers.

* Duke law professor Christopher Schroeder is the leading candidate to head a U.S. Justice Department office on legal policy.

* WUNC's Laura Leslie highlights an interesting floor speech during the sex ed debate from Rep. Arthur Williams, whose wife is a nurse.

* Asheville Citizen-Times' Jordan Schrader highlights a few other moments from the "For Mature Audiences" discussion on the House floor.

* A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr re-opens a fight with liberal talk show host Rachel Maddow over the banking and veterans stories.

BURR BURNED: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr doesn't have a Democratic opponent yet — unless you count left-leaning commentators. After the Winston-Salem Republican said he told his wife to take money out of the ATM during last fall's banking crisis, he was criticized by liberal talk show hosts Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann and took heat from the Huffington Post.

BUDGET SIMMERS: The U.S. Senate was once described as the saucer used to cool hot bills from the House. It's apparently the other way in the state legislature, where chief budget writer Rep. Mickey Michaux said he'll take his time going over the budget bill rushed over from the Senate last week. Check back next week.

TAX DAY: Thousands of protesters gathered across North Carolina on Wednesday to protest the bank bailouts and the size of the federal budget. The so-called Tea Party protests were tied to the date federal income taxes are due. Meantime, the state Department of Revenue said it was running a few weeks behind in sending out tax refunds.

IN OTHER NEWS: A group of Republicans started Carolina Strategy Group to poll voters on state issues and work with business clients. ... Former Congressman and illegal immigration opponent Tom Tancredo was driven out of UNC-Chapel Hill by angry protesters. ... The state House narrowly approved a bill adding a comprehensive sex education option to public schools and passed a major fix to the State Health Plan that will reduce benefits for state workers.