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* U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge will speak at the Campbell University commencement. He is an alumnus of the college.

* Liberal blogger Rob Schofield notes a mixed message from the North Carolina chamber about whether workers should have sick days.

* Legislators send a bill to limit local governments that want to provide Internet access to residents to committee to be studied.

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx sends a letter to the mother of Matthew Shepard apologizing for her comments about his death, hate crimes bill passes. 

A second poll shows support for mandated sick leave.

A survey for senior advocacy group AARP found that 79 percent of North Carolinians thought employers "should be required to provide a minimum number of paid sick days to full-time employees."

Eighteen percent said no and three percent said they didn't know.

The survey is being cited by a North Carolina coalition advocating for paid sick leave to rebut a recent poll by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling that showed little support for mandated sick leave.

The difference in the two polls could be attributed to methodology and question wording. The PPP poll referred to mandates and added the alternative that it be left up to employers and employees "on an individual basis."

The AARP survey of 800 North Carolina households was conducted by Alan Newman Research from Oct. 19 through Nov. 4, 2007. Responses were weighted to reflect gender and employed people over the age of 30.

It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The benefits of requiring paid sick days for workers would offset the costs by improving public health and employee retention, supporters of state legislation that would require such time said this morning.

A House bill would make employers provide up to seven days of paid sick time per year so that workers can tend to illness without fear of losing income, Jonathan Cox reports.

Forty-two percent of workers in North Carolina, or 1.6 million people, lack such a benefit, according to numbers provided by the N.C. Justice Center, which advocates for the poor and is pushing for passage of the legislation.

"Everyone gets sick," said Rep. Alma Adams, a Guilford County Democrat and primary sponsor of the legislation. "Unfortunately, not everyone has a fair chance to get better."

Employers, though, say that imposing such a mandate would cause an onerous burden, especially during the grips of severe recession.

"Small businesses are struggling so much right now," said Gregg Thompson, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. "That additional expense could be very damaging."

A bill would let state workers donate their sick days more easily.

State Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat, said she filed the bill to allow state government workers who are seriously ill to stay on the job after they've used up their sick days.

Currently, state employees can donate their sick days to a coworker in their own department, but not in other departments.

Insko's bill would allow them to donate to any other state worker. It would also allow anyone employed by a local school district to donate to anyone else in the district.

She said the bill would especially help single mothers and women who contribute a substantial portion of their family's income. 

"There are not very many people who would need this," she said. "It tends to be women who are working and have cancer, and they may be single moms, and they don't want to lose their jobs."