HAIL TO THE CUPCAKES: President Barack Obama held a town hall at a Raleigh high school to build support and rally swing votes on health care reform among the state's Congressional delegation. While in Raleigh, the leader of the free world gave a huge plug to a Raleigh cupcake shop and forgot the name of the House speaker.

THE DEAL'S A LOCK: Last week's budget meltdown left House and Senate Democrats bitterly divided. And that's how they stayed until Wednesday when the budget negotiators unveiled a plan that looked remarkably like the one that died the week before. By week's end they had a handshake agreement to raise sales taxes and income taxes on higher wage earners. A handful of Democrats, enough to scuttle the deal, were grumbling about the "sin" taxes and the word was Gov. Beverly Perdue still wasn't thrilled with the tax plan. What could go wrong?

BEAM HIM UP: Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat from Ceti Alpha 5, er, Greensboro, was in the news this week. First he breathlessly announced in a news conference that his bill to legalize video poker has supporters. Then his bill to create a high-tech center called the "Star Fleet Academy" on N.C. A&T State University's campus was the subject of a parody video that included a picture of Perdue after a Borg assimilation. Jones is running on impulse power and his shields are at 25 percent. Scotty, you've got to give him more power!

IN OTHER NEWS: Former house member Michael Decker got his prison sentence reduced. U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre won't run for Senate. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr won't vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who follows judicial issues in Congress, says U.S. Sen. Richard Burr wouldn’t be risking much of the Latino vote by opposing Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I think it might be a bigger risk that he may offend the base of his own party,” Tobias said.

Tobias pointed out that many of the Republican senators up for re-election next year, like Burr, have decided to vote with GOP leadership against Sotomayor, reports Barb Barrett.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr says he is opposing the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, had said when Sotomayor was nominated he would consider her qualifications and adherence to the Constitution. He met with her in person last week, reports Barb Barrett.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Sotomayor’s nomination Tuesday. The only Republican voting for her was U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. Her nomination now goes to a vote in the full Senate.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, already has said that she’ll support Sotomayor.

Read Burr's full statement after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan plans to support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, but U.S. Sen. Richard Burr isn’t yet ready to commit.

Sotomayor spent last week answering questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about her record. The committee will begin debate Tuesday on whether to recommend her. The full Senate, including Hagan and Burr, would then cast the final vote on her confirmation, Barb Barrett reports.

Burr spokesman David Ward said Monday that the Republican senator wants to ask Sotomayor a few more questions about her record. Burr is scheduled to meet with the Supreme Court nominee next week.

"Senator Burr is continuing to review Judge Sotomayor’s judicial record as well as her remarks at last week’s Judiciary Committee hearing," Ward said in a prepared statement.  "He will be able to make a more thorough assessment of her qualifications after meeting with her next week and asking specific, substantive questions to ensure that she is committed to upholding the Constitution and the rights and freedoms it protects."

Hagan, a Democrat, said she supports the nominee.

"Justice Sotomayor said in her confirmation hearing that her underlying judicial philosophy is 'fidelity to the law,'" Hagan said in a prepared statement.

"She has an established record as a moderate judge whose decisions show a respect for precedent.  In 1998, Sen. Jesse Helms voted for her confirmation to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is based in New York. Based on her record and testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, I intend to support her confirmation to the United States Supreme Court."

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, is among the senators being visited today by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The nominee is continuing her round of Senate visits this week, Barb Barrett reports.

APPLE BITES: This week it was all about Jobs — with a lower-case and upper-case J. The same day that Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law changes to the state's corporate taxes designed to lure Apple, the company founded by Steve Jobs announced it would build a $1 billion data center. Opponents of corporate incentives, meantime, felt more like the biblical Job, suffering yet again.

BURR'S CRUSADE: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr stood up for tobacco in the Senate. The Winston-Salem Republican spent more than four hours on the floor arguing against a bill to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He said it would stifle innovation in nicotine delivery systems and hurt the "gold standard" of food and drug oversight. He and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan proposed an alternate bill.

EMPTYING HOUSE? Another state representative is leaving. Rep. Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County Republican, will step down this month to spend more time with his family. He joins four other legislators this term who've stepped down to accept a gubernatorial appointment (Rep. Linda Coleman) or move to the state Senate (now Sen. Dan Blue) or because they died (Sen. Vernon Malone) or were under investigation (Rep. Cary Allred).

IN OTHER NEWS: An East Carolina University professor will discuss his studies of the vice presidency with Joe Biden. ... Elizabeth Edwards is not interested in running for U.S. Senate, but she will open a furniture store in Chapel Hill. ... Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will make her first political appearance since losing in November when she introduces one-time GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in Charlotte next week. ... Hagan ran into Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the ladies' room at the Capitol.

A poll shows North Carolinians split on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

The survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found 43 opposed confirming Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, 39 percent supported it and 18 percent were not sure.

"It's interesting that the state doesn't fit the overall conventional wisdom that this was a good pick by Obama," said president Dean Debnam in a statement.

Recent national polls have shown more voters thought Sotomayor was an excellent or good pick than a fair or poor one. 

One reason for the split was that more Republicans opposed Sotomayor than Democrats favored her. Independents were mostly split.

The automated survey of 609 voters was conducted from May 28 to May 30. The margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.

iLEGISLATURE: State legislators may rewrite the corporate tax law in a bid to lure Apple computer, which is looking for a spot to locate a $1 billion data center. The tax breaks could be worth about $3 million a year in the first years and eventually grow to $12.5 million a year. The bill passed the House this week but must go back to the Senate for final approval.

PRE-RACE WARMUP: Contenders for the 2010 elections continue to get shuffled. Democrats are mulling six candidates for U.S. Senate: Reps. Heath Shuler and Mike McIntyre, state Sens. Malcolm Graham and Dan Blue, Iraq vet Cal Cunningham and Durham lawyer Kenneth Lewis. Meantime, Republicans lost first-round draft pick Mike Minter, who declined to run against Rep. Larry Kissell.

DUKING IT OUT: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is taking heat for remarks she made at Duke University in 2005. An Appeals Court judge, she said the court is "where policy is made." Conservatives said that means she'll legislate from the bench; liberals said she simply meant interpreting vague laws. Forum moderator Erwin Chemerinsky said it's much ado about an "innocuous" remark.

IN OTHER NEWS: Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will hold a fundraiser in Charlotte in June. ... Mike Easley Jr. is working at the same law firm as Richard Vinroot, who ran against his father in 2000. ... Gov. Beverly Perdue said she trusts her son Garrett is not lobbying state legislators, despite his recent attendance at a big event. ... The N.C. Association of Educators says it's "at war" over the state budget.

Erwin Chemerinsky heartily endorses Sonia Sotomayor.

The former Duke University law professor, who moderated a forum with the Supreme Court nominee in 2005, said he thinks she is "terrific for the Supreme Court and the future of constitutional law," in a blog post on The New Republic today.

Now the dean of the U.C.-Irvine law school, he also said criticism of her is misguided.

"I think that is much ado about nothing," he wrote in an e-mail to the Duke Chronicle. "Of course, judges' life experience influence how they see the issues and matters before them. Judge Sotomayor's statement was innocuous and true. I think that this is grasping at straws to try and paint her a liberal."

It's not clear that Chemerinsky is responding to the comment that the Court of Appeals "is where policy is made," however.

It sounds more like a defense of Sotomayor's remark during a speech at U.C.-Berkeley in 2001 that has also been criticized.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," she said.

Update: Chemerinsky e-mailed Dome with a more explicit defense.

"Judge Sotomayor's comment was innocuous and true," he wrote. "Appellate judges and Supreme Court Justices must make choices about the law that include consideration of policy issues. Every first year law student knows this. I am amazed that anyone is making anything of this comment."

Hat Tip: ZTracer

Dome looked long and hard for a North Carolina connection for Sonia Sotomayor.

At last, we've found one.

The Supreme Court nominee participated in a forum at Duke University's law school on Feb. 25, 2005, which may soon be notorious.

During the forum, Sotomayor made a remark about the Court of Appeals:

"... they're looking for people with court of appeals experience, because it is -- court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know -- and I know this is on tape and I should never say that because we don't make law, I know. OK, I know. I'm not promoting it, and I'm not advocating it, I'm -- you know. OK."

Conservative advocacy groups have already begun using that clip to argue that Sotomayor would legislate from the bench, while liberals have said the remark is being misconstrued.