The state House and Senate need to work out their differences on a proposed law that would make it a low-grade felony for registered sex offenders to use social networking web sites.

Sen. Walter Dalton, a Rutherfordton Democrat who is running for lieutenant governor, said the House deleted provisions that should have been included, such as making it a felony to lie to an SBI agent and making  in-person solicitation of minors and online solicitation separate offenses.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office said they want those provisions added back to the bill, Lynn Bonner reports.

State Attorney General Roy Cooper started pushing for the law last year. Back then, the proposal included a requirement to have social networking sites obtain parental consent before they allowed children to join.

Since then, MySpace and Facebook came to agreements with state attorneys general to add safeguards to protect minors from sexual predators.

Many sections of the original bill, including the provision that would have required parental consent for a child to join a social networking site,  have been removed.

A state bill would toughen penalties for sex crimes.

The state House already passed a version of the Jessica Lunsford Act for North Carolina, named for a 9-year-old Florida girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed by a neighbor who was a convicted sex offender in 2005.

A Senate version of the bill made it out of a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday night and now heads to the Appropriations committee.

If the bill passes, people who commit rape or sexual offenses against children younger than 13 would receive minimum 25-year prison sentences with the possibility of serving a lifetime behind bars. Currently, the minimum is 12 years.

"I'm not saying they don't need a program or some type of psychiatric care, but we can't have people like this out," said Mark A. Palmer of Charlotte, an advocate for the bill.

Sex offenders would also receive GPS monitoring by satellite when they get out. The bill is estimated to cost an additional $6.58 million over five years. (N&O) 

House budget writers don't want newly-released pedophiles, rapists and other sex offenders staying temporarily in hotels at public expense.

Last night, the House Appropriations Committee changed a provision in the House budget bill that allows the Correction Department to pay for temporary housing for felons released from prison who are on parole, probation or some other form of post-release supervision, Dan Kane reports. The department can use its budget to place felons in a homeless shelter, halfway house, or other housing provider that is under contract with the federal government to provide housing for offenders.

The provision specifically bars the department from sending felons to "a hotel, motel, nursing home, adult care facility, group home containing the physically or developmentally disabled, or residential facility where minors are housed."

Lawmakers also said that the temporary housing can last no more than 30 days, and ordered a study into the feasibility of setting up temporary housing for released felons who can't find a place to stay.

The Correction Department sought the provision after finding it difficult to place sex offenders. New laws that prevent them from being within 1,000 feet of a school or child care center and local ordinances that have banned them from parks have given sex offenders limited. In some cases, they have opted to stay in prison to serve out their maximum sentences, which correction officials say is much more costly than paying for temporary housing until a permanent residence is found.

The original provision would have allowed the department to place felons in hotels, which correction officials said they would do if other options such as homeless shelters were unavailable.

Gov. Mike Easley said that a Department of Correction plan to house sex offenders in motels is the "best of a lot of poor options."

The state House's draft budget includes a provision that would allow Correction officials to put sex offenders up in motels if they cannot find another place to live when they leave prison. Tough laws restricting where sex offenders can stay have left some homeless and others with no options better than prison.

"What we're finding is a lot of these sex offenders who are paroled end up homeless and they're staying in our state parks or city parks where kids play," Easley said.

"With all of the options, this seems to be the one that protects the public the most and that is what the state is supposed to do is protect kids from sex offenders and this is the best way we know how to do it at this point," Easley said.

Pat McCrory criticized a Superior Court judge Wednesday for ruling last week that four sex offenders shouldn't be subject to lifetime satellite monitoring.

McCrory, Charlotte's mayor and a Republican candidate for governor, called on the state to appeal the judge's ruling, David Ingram reports.

"Every day the attorney general delays appealing this case, more children are in danger," he said.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper did not have an immediate comment.

Judge Ripley Rand ruled in Wake County that the sex offenders shouldn't be monitored because they were sentenced before the monitoring law took effect Dec. 1. He did not address constitutional questions of double punishment.

McCrory's comments came at a news conference at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, one of seven stops planned for a trip across the state Wednesday.

More after the jump.

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A sex offender in Cumberland County has sued the state.

In a federal lawsuit, Jay Usategui of Hope Mills argues that a new state program that uses a bulky ankle bracelet and a 2-pound monitoring device to allow law enforcement officers to track him by satellite is unconstitutional.

He pleaded guilty in 2003 to taking indecent liberties with a 15-year-old girl.

The device would allow state officials to see if he is near a school, day-care center or other areas that are off limits to sex offenders. Usategui argues that it amounts to an "unreasonable search."

About 114 people are being monitored under the program. (N&O)

MySpace will not release the names of sex offenders it has removed.

The social networking site refused to answer a request from eight attorney generals, including Roy Cooper, to release the names, saying it was prohibited from doing so by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Andrea Weigl reports.

In a statement, Hemanshu Nigam, the company's chief security officer, said that the company has "zero tolerance" for sexual predators:

"In the 12 days since the software has become operable, we have deleted and removed every registered sex offender that we identified out of our more than 175 million profiles," he said.

Cooper's response came today: "It's outrageous that MySpace chooses to protect the privacy of predators over the safety of children. We will take action to require MySpace to give law enforcement and parents the information we need to protect our kids."

Attorney General Roy Cooper is turning up the heat on MySpace.

In a letter co-signed by attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he demanded that the social networking site turn over the names of all registered sex offenders using it.

They reference an October story in Wired magazine, which found 744 registered sex offenders on the site, and data from Sentinel Tech Holding, which is rooting out offenders for MySpace:

It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known registered sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members.

Cooper has also testified in favor of a state bill that would require minors using MySpace get their parents' permission.

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper urged lawmakers today to approve a bill aimed at making North Carolina children safer when they use MySpace and other social networking sites.

Cooper spoke before a state Senate committee considering the bill, which would compel such Web sites to require parental consent before a child younger than 16 joins and posts personal information, Andrea Weigl reports.

Cooper said recent laws have helped battle the problem of child sexual predators, adding, "It’s clear from what we're seeing out there that we have to do a lot more."

The Senate committee plans to continue discussion of the bill Tuesday.